The great outdoors can be a place full of wonder and adventure. Despite its beauty, the outdoors can also be a dangerous and cruel environment for anyone who doesn’t respect it.  Each year, scores of visitors get lost or go missing in national parks. Being educated and aware of what to do if something goes […]

This article was originally published by Conner McEleney at The Mises Institute. 

Many progressives, such as Robert Reich and Kyle Kulinski, argue that the economy needs a universal basic income (UBI) to fix it. Their argument stems from the idea that UBI has no serious flaws, that many studies show success, and that it’s the moral thing to do.

An example that these progressives would cite would be the Denver UBI experiment. The study had three groups of people. Group A had $1,000 per month, and Group B had $6,500 for the first month; the other months were $500. Group C had $50 a month. The study concluded that giving money improved their overall well-being.

As the saying goes, it’s too good to be true; the results alone are exaggerated by UBI proponents. The actual results show that in Group A, which received a total of $12,000 in a year, 44 percent of them are housed. Meanwhile, Group C received $600 in the year, and 43 percent were housed. Even though Group A has 20 times the value of Group C, both had similar results.

Ironically, the study was not universal because it denied participants who were “having severe and unaddressed mental health or substance use issues.” As a result, the findings are cherry-picked because they removed people who could make the results look bad.

Even if the study were accurate, the results would be different if applied by the government. One of the biggest potential differences we would see from UBI on a more permanent basis is what Milton Friedman called the permanent income hypothesis. The hypothesis states that “consumers base their spending decisions on their average long-term income rather than their current income.”

An example would be a person receiving a gift of a few hundred dollars from a birthday party. That person would go on to save it or splurge it on an expensive product. However, this money would not change their spending habits for an average week because they knew the birthday money was temporary compared to a raise in a job.

Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that people would act differently if UBI were permanent compared to case studies in which it was temporary. In the case studies, all participants knew the money was temporary. As a result, they will try to ration the money differently because of a different mindset.

Another problem with UBI as a government program would be funding. The funding for the case study was not from tax dollars; it came from private donations. Based on the book Cooperation and Coercion: How Busybodies Became Busybullies and What that Means for Economics and Politics by Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan, people respond to actions differently if the ideas came from cooperation or coercion. In the case studies, the people who funded the operations did so because they were happy to cooperate.

However, if UBI becomes a government program, it would be through taxation. Taxes are not cooperative actions, but rather they are coercive actions. As a result, taxes would change the economic activity of the area more than the case studies would ever do.

After all, people do leave areas because of taxes. An example would be Illinois. An article from the Illinois Policy Institute using IRS data found that “nearly 56,000 people and over $6 billion in income left in 2023.” Besides moving, economists Christina and David Romer published a study in the American Economic Association, finding that a $1 tax on GDP has caused a $3 decrease in GDP. Not only that, a working paper in the CBO found that labor bears 70 percent of the corporate tax burden.

Taxes to fund UBI would require a massive tax increase as a government program. According to the founder of CBPP, Robert Greenstein, it would cost $3 trillion a year, assuming it goes to 300 million people and provides $10,000. Greenstein put into context the tax dollars needed to fund this program: “The figure equals more than three-fourths of the entire yearly federal budget — and double the entire budget outside Social Security, Medicare, defense, and interest payments. It’s also equal to close to 100 percent of all tax revenue the federal government collects.”

Even though proponents of UBI will try to argue that it will help people by giving them free money. However, as Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

This article was originally published by Mike Adams at Natural News. 

The War Is Over — and We Lost

Today is a pivot point in the conflict. As of today, I believe the United States has decisively lost the war with Iran, and we are now in a fighting retreat. This is not speculation or defeatism but a sober assessment based on undeniable evidence. Colonel Douglas McGregor and other military experts have been warning for years that the U.S. military machine cannot win a sustained conflict against a determined, geographically gifted, and technologically capable adversary like Iran. Now their predictions have been validated.

Former US counterterrorism chief Joe Kent, a Green Beret and CIA paramilitary officer who served 11 combat tours, resigned in March 2026 in protest against the war. In his resignation letter, he called on Washington to withdraw its forces and abandon its bases in the Middle East, arguing that months of confrontation have demonstrated Iran’s strengthened regional position ^[1]. The mainstream media and the administration spin this as a tactical pause, but the reality is strategic defeat. From destroyed bases to offline radar, every indicator points to a loss that the American people have not been told about.

The Evidence Is Overwhelming: Bases, Radar, and Interceptions

All US bases in the region are damaged or destroyed; radar installations are offline, leaving us blind. The Pentagon claims we intercepted most Iranian missiles, but that is laughable. As I detailed in my earlier analysis of Iran’s war strategy, their approach is to blind, deplete, and overwhelm our defenses ^[2]. Centcom’s assertion of near-perfect interception rates is contradicted by experts like Ted Postal, who put actual interception rates in the single digits (percentage-wise).

Yesterday’s surprise ballistic missile attack on US bases in Jordan shows Iran is now picking targets while we react. As one Middle East analysis put it, the war on Iran has been a strategic disaster for America and Israel ^[3]. The US and Israel appear stuck in a doom loop of their own making, with Iran imposing terms on the battlefield that Washington cannot counter. We have lost the initiative, and our military credibility is shattered.

Chess, OODA Loops, and the Iranian Advantage

It looks to me like the US is trapped in the OODA loop, forced to react to Iranian moves while Iran initiates. Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern noted that the United States appears to be using Israel as a proxy to wage war on Iran, much like Ukraine was used against Russia ^[4]. But that proxy strategy has backfired spectacularly. Iran’s methodical, patient strategy stands in stark contrast to the chaotic, spur-of-the-moment decision-making and desperate media spin from Washington.

As Andrei Martyanov explains in The Real Revolution in Military Affairs, modern warfare between technologically advanced opponents is defined by drone deployment, hypersonic weapons and new realities that render immense budgets meaningless ^[5]. Iran has the discipline to endure losses and wait for the right moment, while US leadership is erratic and often driven by ego. The consequence is that Iran now has more incentive to resist US demands, even if war restarts, as Israeli think tanks have admitted ^[6]. In other words, Iran is fully committed to standing by its demands, and it will never surrender to the United States military, no matter what conditions unfold.

The Strait of Hormuz: The Lie We Can’t Admit

Trump has repeatedly claimed we control the Strait of Hormuz, but that’s never been true. Iran controls it. No US naval vessel has successfully transited the strait under fire; we can’t even escort tankers. The economic catastrophe of the closure has triggered shortages in oil, gas, helium, and fertilizer, leading to supply chain chaos ^[7]. The US is bluffing, and the world sees it.

The reality is that Iran’s position in the strait is unassailable. Bombing Iran is like trying to bomb the geography off the face of the Earth, and it won’t work. Thanks to a series of unwise decisions at the highest levels, our military credibility is now all but gone, and the Strait of Hormuz is the tombstone of American naval supremacy.

What a Fighting Retreat Means — and What We Should Do

We are conserving what’s left, but the war is lost. The only rational path is peace. I call for the US to leave the Middle East immediately, stop propping up Israel, and focus on self-sufficiency.

Since peace is unlikely to break out any time soon — because truly insane people are in charge of the American empire right now — prepare for supply shocks, higher prices, and war escalation. Decentralized living is the key to survival.

As Dennis Kucinich said in our interview before the war, we must embrace peace and reject the war machine ^[8]. America must learn from its hubris and recognize that the era of global domination is over. It’s time to rebuild at home, not bomb abroad.

References

1. 1. US must recognize Iran as major regional power – Trump’s ex-counterterror chief. RT.com. July 20, 2026.
   2. Iran’s War Strategy: Blind, Deplete, and Overwhelm — NaturalNews.com. March 2, 2026.
   3. The war on Iran was a strategic disaster for America and Israel. Middle East Eye. June 24, 2026.
   4. Mike Adams interview with Ray McGovern. January 29, 2024.
   5. The Real Revolution in Military Affairs. Andrei Martyanov.
   6. Iran Now Has More Incentive To Resist US Demands, Even If War Restarts. ZeroHedge. May 19, 2026.
   7. The Economic Catastrophe of Trump’s Iran War. NaturalNews.com. June 30, 2026.
   8. Mike Adams interview with Dennis Kucinich. July 30, 2025.
   9. 2025 09 24 BBN Interview with Michael Yon. Mike Adams.
   10. What if we actually nuked our way around the Hormuz blockage? Responsible Statecraft. March 21, 2026.
   11. Trump’s U-turn on Iran war has ended Israel’s Middle East dream. Middle East Eye. June 17, 2026.
   12. Health Ranger Report – fuel shortages hit America. Mike Adams. May 11, 2026.

Explainer Infographic

At a Glance: Hurricane Evacuation

• Leave right away if leaders order a mandatory evacuation.
• Pack your bags and load your car a full 48 hours before the storm hits.
• Never try to stay in a mobile home or flood zone during high winds.

Every hurricane season brings the same big question: Should we stay, or should we go? Deciding to leave your home is hard. But keeping your family safe is the number one goal. This easy guide will help you know exactly when to pack up and leave.

How do I know it’s time to evacuate?

You should evacuate right away if local leaders give a mandatory order, or if you live in a weak structure like a mobile home. Do not wait to see how bad the weather gets. To make the safest choice, you need to check a few specific things about where you live. Let’s look at how local rules, your flood zone, and your house type will help you decide.

Listen to local leaders

If your town issues a “Mandatory Evacuation,” you must leave right away.

Check your zone

Find out if you live in a flood zone or storm surge area.

Look at your home

Mobile homes and older houses are not safe in high winds. If you live in one, plan to leave early.

Warning signals you need to evacuate hurricane season

The biggest warning signals are rising water nearby or a storm path pointing right at your town. If you see these signs, it is time to leave. Pay close attention to what is happening outside and in your community. Here are the main signals that mean you need to get out now.

Rising water near you

If local rivers or lakes are already high before the storm hits.

Changes in storm path

The storm turns and is now heading straight for your town.

Loss of local services

Hospitals, grocery stores, and gas stations are closing down.

Feeling unsafe

Trust your gut. If you worry your house cannot handle the wind, it is time to go.

Top signs it is unsafe to stay home

It is unsafe to stay if you live right on the coast, need power for medical gear, or do not have a safe inner room. These signs mean your house cannot protect you when things get bad. Before the storm arrives, check your home and your family’s needs. Let’s look at the top three facts that tell you it is too dangerous to stay.

• Your home is near the beach or coastline
• You rely on electricity for medical machines
• You have no safe, windowless room in the center of your house
• How to plan your family evacuation route

You plan your route by picking a safe place far inland and mapping out the roads on paper. You also need to make sure your car is totally ready for a long drive. Planning your escape before the panic starts keeps everyone calm. Here is exactly how to pick your spot, map it out, and prepare your vehicle.

Pick a spot

Choose a friend’s house or a hotel inland, far away from the coast.

Map it out

Have a printed map. Do not just trust your phone, because cell service might drop.

Fill the tank

Keep your car’s gas tank full or your EV fully charged.

How long do I need to prepare for hurricane season?

You need to start preparing in May, well before the summer storms even start. You also need to have all your bags packed 48 hours before a named storm hits your town. Getting ready takes time, so you cannot wait until the sky gets dark. Let’s talk about starting early, doing weekly checks, and following the 48-hour rule.

• Start early: The best time to prepare is in May, before the season starts in June.
• Weekly checks: Take one weekend a month to check your supplies.
• The 48-hour rule: When a storm is two days away, your bags should be fully packed and in the car.

What should be in a hurricane emergency kit?

Your kit must have enough water, canned food, flashlights, and first aid for at least three days. You also need a weather radio and important papers stored in a waterproof bag. Building a good go-bag means packing items that keep you alive, healthy, and informed. Here is exactly what you need to gather for your food, power, and medical supplies.

Water and Food

3 days of water (1 gallon per person, per day) and non-perishable food.

Power

Flashlights, extra batteries, and portable power banks for phones.

Radio

A hand-crank NOAA weather radio.

First Aid

Bandages, wipes, and any daily medicines.

Papers

Put your ID, insurance, and cash in a waterproof bag. 

Do not wait until the last minute. The best way to beat hurricane season is to be ready before the storm even forms. Share this post with your family and start building your emergency kit today!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it safe to ride out a Category 3 hurricane?

Mostly, no. A Category 3 storm has winds up to 129 mph. It can rip off roofs and knock down large trees. If you are near the coast, you should leave.

What if I don’t have a car to evacuate?

Call your local city office right now. Most towns have free buses or shuttles to take people to safe shelters during a storm.

Should I leave my pets behind?

Never leave your pets behind. If it is not safe for you, it is not safe for them. Keep a pet travel bag ready with their food and a leash.

What is the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning?

A “watch” means a hurricane might happen in the next 48 hours. A “warning” means a hurricane is expected to hit your area in the next 36 hours. A warning means you need to take action right away!

How much cash should I keep in my hurricane kit?

It is smart to keep some cash in small bills. If the power goes out, card readers at gas stations and stores will not work, so cash is very important.

Can I board up my windows and stay home during an evacuation?

No. Boarding up windows protects your house from wind, but it does not protect you from floodwaters or falling trees. If leaders say you must go, you should leave to stay safe.

Where is the safest place in my home during a hurricane?

If you are not told to leave, stay on the lowest floor in a small room with no windows. A closet, hallway, or bathroom in the center of your house is the safest spot.

What should I do with my car before a hurricane?

Fill your gas tank all the way up. Park your car in a garage or on high ground away from big trees. If you have to evacuate, having a full tank means you will not get stuck in long lines.

Somehow we have convinced ourselves that AI companies that are bleeding billions upon billions of dollars are great investments because there is a possibility that someday they will eventually become profitable. But the losses just keep getting even bigger every year. Meanwhile, we are spending trillions of dollars to build even more AI infrastructure. There is no way that the AI industry is ever going to generate the sort of revenue that will justify that level of investment. What we are witnessing is a capital misallocation of absolutely epic proportions, and it is inevitable that this entire bubble is going to come crashing down. When that finally happens, it will be unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Stanford University says that “total global corporate investment in AI reached $1.6 trillion” from 2013 to 2024…

According to the 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University, between 2013 and 2024, total global corporate investment in AI reached $1.6 trillion. This substantial expenditure dwarfs even the largest scientific and infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st centuries.

That number is so high that it is difficult to believe.

But last year we took things to an entirely new level.

We are being told that total worldwide spending on AI in 2025 was 2.5 trillion dollars…

According to Gartner, a United States-based business and technology insights company, worldwide spending on AI is forecast to total $2.5 trillion in 2026, a 44 percent increase over 2025.

We are building a tremendous amount of AI infrastructure, but is it worth it?

For a long time, investors have been completely sold on the idea.

In fact, over the last three years the “value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion”…

The American stock market is booming, thanks to artificial intelligence. Tech giants are borrowing billions to acquire AI talent, purchase chips and hardware, and construct data centers. And market watchers are starting to get worried. They see financiers bulldozing giant piles of money to private AI start-ups with no realistic path to profitability, tech companies reliant on other tech companies for revenue growth, and non-tech businesses without a lot to show for their AI investments. The value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion in the past three years—an astonishing amount, equivalent to 36 percent of the value of the entire U.S. stock market today.

AI mania has reached a fever pitch.

But are these firms really worth that much money?

Of course not.

In fact, most of them are bleeding colossal amounts of cash.

A perfect example is OpenAI. Ed Zitron is warning that when OpenAI inevitably fails it could take the entire stock market down with it…

The AI bubble is simple, Ed Zitron says, because it’s really a bubble in a single company: OpenAI.

As the ChatGPT maker heads toward a momentous IPO, the vocal AI critic says that OpenAI is the only reason anyone cares about AI at all—and it’s failure would spark a collapse similar to the one set off by Lehman Brothers when the bank fell apart in 2008.

OpenAI is supposedly worth more than 800 billion dollars.

But the financial numbers that it reported for 2025 were absolutely nightmarish…

• Revenue: $13.07 billion
• Cost of Revenue: $7.5 billion
• Research and Development: $19.18 billion
• Sales and Marketing: $5.73 billion
• General and Administrative: $1.57 Billion
• Total Costs and Expenses: $34 billion
• Loss from Operations: $20.92 billion

For the entire year, OpenAI reported a total net loss of 38.5 billion dollars…

Please note that 2025 was the year that OpenAI converted from a non-profit to a for-profit entity, leading to a $41.55 billion loss due to changes in fair value of convertible interests and warrant liability.

Taking into account other minor factors like interest income and interest expense, OpenAI is left with a net loss of $60.35 billion, which it lowered to $38.53 billion by removing $17.87 billion in costs via that “net loss attributable to noncontrolling members capital” and another $3.95 billion via a “net loss attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests.”

Ultimately, the net loss attributable to OpenAI in 2025 was $38.5 billion.

If I hired thousands of people and we all started flushing dollar bills down the toilet as fast as we possibly could, there is no way that we could ever lose that much money in an entire year.

Open AI is a financial black hole.

Sam Altman promised us that OpenAI would soon be making $100 billion a year in ad revenue alone, but that isn’t the way that things have worked out.

Sadly, Open AI is currently on pace “to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent”…

Even as the AI bubble becomes a mainstream talking point on Wall Street, tech companies continue to peddle the fantasy that AI is poised to become an almost magical money-maker. Case in point, OpenAI wants you to believe that by 2030, it’ll be raking in $100 billion a year just from ads alone — even though it’s currently struggling to reach just $1 billion.

That massive gulf was observed in a new analysis from marketing consulting firm Emarketer, first flagged by AdWeek, which found OpenAI is on pace to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent. In fact, Emarketer’s take is even more devastating than that: it estimates the entire addressable market for chatbot advertising — the maximum amount of money up for grabs overall — at $5.4 billion.

This is an unmitigated disaster.

Other AI companies are producing similar results.

Meanwhile, a lot of companies are now ditching expensive AI models that were created in the United States for much cheaper AI models that were created in China…

As corporate AI bills spiral out of control, many companies are beginning to ask themselves a simple question: why pay a pretty penny for the US’s leading AI models when Chinese ones are far cheaper?

Major companies like DoorDash, Airbnb, and Siemens are adopting Chinese AI tools, the Financial Times reports, attracted not only by their lower costs but their “open-weight” approach that allows them to be molded to each company’s particular needs.

According to data from OpenRouter, a platform that provides all-in-one access to major AI models and tracks their usage, leading Chinese models from DeepSeek and Z.ai have overtaken US equivalents like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Cost-cutting, it seems, trumps all geopolitical rivalries.

Chinese models are “the elephant in the room,” Eugene Cheah, CEO of the AI platform Featherless AI, told the FT. “Enterprises are starting to realize, ‘Hey, we don’t need the best model, we can use the faster, cheaper models.’”

It has become very clear that AI companies will never be the money trees that they were touted to be by their most fervent proponents.

In fact, the biggest money losers will end up being some of the most dramatic financial flops of all time.

So what does that mean for the stock market?

From a long-term point of view, stock prices are insanely high…

The S&P 500 Shiller CAPE ratio’s long-term average is around 17, and it’s been steadily creeping higher over the last decade or so.

Right now, the ratio is nearing 42 — the highest it’s been since the dot-com bubble, when it peaked at around 44.

The Shiller CAPE Ratio has stayed above 40 since May, which is only the second time in history that it’s remained this high. The first time was in January 1999, when it stayed above 40 until September 2000.

What goes up must eventually come down.

When the public hears that the AI bubble has burst, there will be a frenzied race for the exits, and the financial devastation that we will witness will be off the charts.

It is just a matter of time.

But for the moment, the race to create new AI models continues, and there is a very real possibility that this technology could escape our control.

For example, OpenAI has revealed that it created a model that “went rogue”, escaped into the Internet and hacked into the computer system of another company…

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has revealed one of its advanced Artificial Intelligence models went rogue during a security test and hacked into a start-up company.

Bosses said the autonomous agent, which is an AI system that operates alone following human instruction, was being tested in a controlled environment.

But it found vulnerabilities and managed to escape containment before reaching the internet and breaking into Hugging Face, a major hub for sharing AI models.

That is scary.

As AI technology continues to develop at an exponential rate, what else will it eventually be able to do?

Our world has become such a strange place.

Ray Kurzweil believes that a decade from now we will be so integrated with AI that we won’t even know if our thoughts are truly our own or if they are being fed to us from highly advanced AI models.

Personally, I would never allow anyone to put a chip into my head or connect my brain directly to the Internet.

But a lot of people out there would eagerly welcome such technology.

Science fiction is rapidly becoming science reality, and things are only going to get weirder from here.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post The AI Bubble Is Going To Burst, And When It Does You Can Say Goodbye To High Stock Prices appeared first on The Economic Collapse.