Imagine yourself sailing on a boat through a serene and breathtaking sea. The waters shine around you, inviting and attractive, but they hide grave dangers ahead. This is “listening to the mermaid’s song”—being deceived by something that, while it sounds charming, leads to ruin. The expression comes from Greek mythology, where mermaids lured sailors with their mesmerizing song, leading them to destruction. Figuratively, “listening to the mermaid’s song” means being deluded by something that seems irresistible but leads to destruction.

As he placed his hand on the Koran, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City on a cold New Year’s Day, promising that “I was elected as a Democratic socialist and I will govern as a Democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.”

Indeed, his inaugural speech was full of the radical proposals that marked his campaign, as he promised. His administration, he declared, would make life better for New Yorkers:

President Trump has again begun threatening Denmark with a potential US annexation of Greenland, an overseas possession of the Danish state. The administration has refused to rule out military action, and in the wake of the US bombing of Venezuela, it is clear that anything is possible. 

Yet, there is one important factor at work in the Greenland case that was not relevant to the bombing of Venezuela: Denmark is a NATO member. 

Three monetary riddles, partially overlapping, require at least a tentative solution before work on any genuine forecast for 2026 and beyond should begin. The completion of the forecast depends further on the taking of a view about the pre-election US monetary stimulus policy of 2025-6. How will this rank alongside previous episodes of the same phenomenon including the Nixon shock of 1971/2, the Volcker/Baker devaluation policy of 85-6, and the Bush/Greenspan devaluation and near zero rate policy of 2003-4.

The recent kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US special forces in Caracas perfectly symbolizes the resurgence of offensive realism in geopolitics. In this American continental theater, where regional ambitions and external interference clash, we witness the mechanisms described by realist theorists in action: the maximization of power, security paranoia, and the exploitation of threats to justify the expansion of control.

Never forget that the Federal Reserve is a tool of central planning, in a style similar to any socialist state. 

America has declared Latin America to be in the USA’s sphere of influence. Yet American “elites” also pretend that the idea doesn’t exist if any other country invokes it.