40 Dead, About 100 Injured After Fire Rips Through Swiss Ski Resort Bar
40 Dead, About 100 Injured After Fire Rips Through Swiss Ski Resort Bar
Swiss emergency services responded to an explosion and fire that killed 40 people and injured about 100 during New Year's celebrations at a bar and lounge called Le Constellation, located in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland.
BREAKING: Swiss police say "several dozen" people are dead, and "100 or so" people have been injured after the fire at Le Constellation bar in Switzerland
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Local officials said the cause of the blast at Le Constellation remains unclear and noted that it has not been designated as a terrorist attack.
"At the moment, we are considering this a fire, and we are not considering the possibility of an attack," prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told reporters, adding that a full investigation has commenced.
"We are a ruling out an attack"
Swiss authorities say the incident is being considered a fire and not an attack
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— Sky News (@SkyNews)
Latest details from the Swiss news conference:
Around 40 people are presumed dead, with at least 100 injured
Victims include multiple nationalities
Most of the injured sustained severe burns and significant injuries
Swiss emergency services deployed 10 helicopters, 40 ambulances, and 150 responders to the scene
Authorities did not disclose a cause for the fire, but the prosecutor ruled out a terrorist attack
The Valais hospital intensive care unit is at capacity, with patients being transferred elsewhere for specialized burn treatment
"What was meant to be a moment of joy turned, on the first day of the year in Crans-Montana, into mourning that touches the entire country and far beyond," Swiss Federal President Guy Parmelin wrote on X.
Thu, 01/01/2026 - 06:54
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BREAKING: Swiss police say "several dozen" people are dead, and "100 or so" people have been injured after the fire at Le Constellation bar in Swit...
X (formerly Twitter)
Sky News (@SkyNews) on X
BREAKING: Swiss police say "several dozen" people are dead, and "100 or so" people have been injured after the fire at Le Constellation bar in Swit...
"At the moment, we are considering this a fire, and we are not considering the possibility of an attack," prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told reporters, adding that a full investigation has commenced.
"We are a ruling out an attack"
Swiss authorities say the incident is being considered a fire and not an attackSky News
The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Sky News delivers breaking news, headlines and top stories from business, politics, entertainment and more in the UK and worldwide.
X (formerly Twitter)
Sky News (@SkyNews) on X
"We are a ruling out an attack"
Swiss authorities say the incident is being considered a fire and not an attack
https://t.co/5MpePzQTlm
📺 Sk...
X (formerly Twitter)
Sky News (@SkyNews) on X
"We are a ruling out an attack"
Swiss authorities say the incident is being considered a fire and not an attack
https://t.co/5MpePzQTlm
📺 Sk...
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge
40 Dead, About 100 Injured After Fire Rips Through Swiss Ski Resort Bar | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
As the successful Japanese carrier task force dramatically reminded the world in 1941, our enemies sit, watch, and consider how emerging tools of warfare pioneered by democracies can be used against these nations of freedom.
Who are the sleeper agents who may be working within our nation's utilities, capable of infecting our complex electrical grids with malware that, if activated, would plunge our cities into darkness?
Who are those who have purchased farmland near our Midwest strategic bomber air bases and whose barns and warehouses could now have drones hidden within them, waiting for a signal to strike?
Can hackers in North Korea manipulate our nation's financial system, threatening everything from bitcoin "banks" to financial transfers on the command of their Communist leader?
These are just some of the nightmare scenarios that America needs to understand and prepare to defend against in a world where armies do not need to invade and missiles do not need to be launched in order to disarm an adversary.
The Chinese, however, are not solely relying on stealth sleeper agents or asymmetrical opportunities.
China's second aircraft carrier is expected to enter service in 2026, according to the respected publication Aviation Week.
Separately, the publication also notes that while the Chinese are publicly criticizing the Trump administration's Golden Dome missile-defense program, they are hard at work at developing their own anti-missile defense shield.
It is classic Beijing – criticize your enemies for what you are already pursuing.
The year 2026 will see the United States advancing on multiple fronts, from accelerating our return to the Moon to strengthening our naval forces, to bolstering our drone technology, to increasing our strategic defenses.
All the while, the forces of freedom must recognize that, like Imperial Japan of 1941, our adversaries are watching Western democracies to determine our vulnerabilities.
It will require the White House to sustain its firm and resolute leadership to protect our future and all those who treasure democracy and freedom.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Yet, come New Year’s Eve, they are set off all around the world, as the clock strikes 12 in one timezone after another. In the U.S, the market is even booming, with the U.S. fireworks industry having reported 
The Architect of the Enclave
You might be wondering how Minnesota, a state once known for Scandinavian stoicism and lakes, became the global epicenter for Somali diasporic fraud. It was not an accident. It was a federal mandate. Between 2008 and 2016, the Obama administration oversaw the admission of over 54,000 Somali refugees into the United States. But they didn't just scatter them across the 50 states. They targeted specific swing states and counties, with Minnesota being the primary dumping ground.
By the time Obama left office, Minnesota was home to the largest Somali population in the country, now estimated at over 80,000 people. This concentration was strategic. By clustering refugees in Minneapolis, the Democratic machine created a voting bloc that could be harvested for elections and a demographic that demanded massive government outlays. They called it "diversity." In reality, it was demographic engineering. The Obama administration poured federal grants into "refugee services," creating a lucrative industry of nonprofits and community organizers whose entire existence depended on keeping the flow of refugees—and federal dollars—moving. This established the infrastructure for the fraud we see today. When you import a population from a failed state with no tradition of Western civic duty, and you teach them that the government is a bottomless trough of free money, you don't get assimilation. You get predation.
The "Equity" Shield: How They Paralyzed the Police
The genius of the Obama-era strategy was not just in the importation of people, but in the weaponization of race to silence dissent. Under the guise of "equity," the Obama administration pushed for relaxed standards in federal contracting, specifically favoring "minority-owned" nonprofits. This created a regulatory environment where asking questions became a career-ending risk.
Consider the mechanics of the "Feeding Our Future" fraud. The fraudsters claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day to children who did not exist. At one site, they claimed to be feeding 2,000 children daily in a second-story apartment. Anyone with eyes could see this was impossible. So why didn't the Minnesota Department of Education stop it? Because when they tried, they were called racists. The fraudsters, emboldened by the racial grievance culture Obama cultivated, sued the state for discrimination. Terrified of the "racism" label, the state resumed payments. This is the direct result of a decade of Obama-era policy that equated oversight with oppression. The bureaucrats were more afraid of a lawsuit from the ACLU than they were of letting billions of dollars in taxpayer money walk out the back door.
The Protege: Ilhan Omar and the MEALS Act
If Barack Obama built the machine, Ilhan Omar is the operator. Omar is the ultimate product of the Minnesota Somali enclave. She rose to power not despite her radicalism, but because of the demographic reality Obama created. And her legislative fingerprints are all over this scandal.
In 2020, as the pandemic began, Omar sponsored the MEALS Act. This legislation fundamentally altered the rules for federal nutrition programs, allowing parents to pick up meals without children present and removing the requirement for congregate dining. While pitched as a compassionate measure, it effectively removed the only verification mechanism the government had. It was a blank check. It is no coincidence that the fraud exploded immediately after these rules were relaxed. Omar’s campaign has accepted thousands of dollars from individuals later indicted in the scheme, money she quietly returned only after the media glare became too bright. She defends the lax rules as necessary to "feed kids," twisting the narrative to make you feel guilty for questioning the theft. But the money didn't go to kids. It went to luxury condos in Nairobi, beachfront property in Turkey, and Porsches in Minneapolis.
The Deep State Money Laundry
The rabbit hole goes deeper than just meal tickets. The connections between the Somali fraud network and the highest levels of the Democratic establishment are becoming impossible to ignore. Take a look at Rose Lake Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Tim Mynett, Ilhan Omar's husband. As the fraud investigations heated up, astute observers noticed that the firm's website was scrubbed of some very interesting names.
Prior to the scrub, the firm listed advisors including a former Obama ambassador to Bahrain, a former Obama ambassador to China, and a former DNC treasurer. Why are top-tier Obama officials swimming in the same financial waters as the family of a Congresswoman whose district is ground zero for the largest fraud in history? These networks provide the cover. They provide the legitimacy. And they potentially provide the mechanism to wash the proceeds of the grift. This is not just local corruption. It is a federally integrated operation where the political elite protect the foot soldiers who deliver the votes and the cash.
The Cost of Submission
You are paying for this. Every time you look at your pay stub and see the massive chunk taken out for federal taxes, remember that money is not building roads. It is not securing the border. It is funding the lifestyle of people who hate you. The $250 million stolen in the Feeding Our Future scam is just the tip of the iceberg. Investigators believe the total theft across childcare, autism, and housing programs could reach billions.
But the financial cost pales in comparison to the security threat. Much of this stolen money was remitted overseas. We know it bought real estate in Kenya and Turkey. What we don't know is how much of it ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab or other extremist groups in the Horn of Africa. By turning a blind eye to this fraud to preserve "community relations," the Democrats have effectively turned the US Treasury into a piggy bank for foreign interests. And politically, they have succeeded. The Somali bloc in Minnesota votes over 80% Democrat. They have sent Ilhan Omar to Congress three times. They are a captured constituency, bought and paid for with your tax dollars.
Dismantling the Legacy
The Minnesota fraud scandal is the inevitable result of the Obama doctrine: Import a dependent class, dismantle the safeguards against corruption under the banner of "equity," and brand anyone who notices as a bigot. They counted on your silence. They counted on your fear of being called a name.
But the receipts are in. We know who did this. We know how they did it. And we know who let it happen. The solution is not "reform." It is a complete dismantling of the refugee resettlement pipeline that Obama built. We need a forensic audit of every federal dollar sent to "community non-profits" in the last ten years. We need to seize the assets—the cars, the houses, the overseas accounts—of everyone involved. And most importantly, we need to stop being afraid. The cry of "racism" is the thief's final defense. Ignore it. Keep your eyes on the money. Keep your eyes on the truth. They stole your country and sold it back to you as "diversity." Demand a refund.
What You Can Do Right Now:
Share this article: The mainstream media is trying to bury the Obama connection. Force the conversation.
Demand Audits: Contact your state representatives and demand a specialized audit of all Department of Education and DHS grant recipients in your state.
Reject the Guilt: When they try to shame you for asking where the money went, laugh in their faces. You are the creditor. They are the debtors. And collection day is coming.
. . .
For veteran driver Muhammad Iqbal, the change has been dramatic. A decade ago, Chinese buses in Indonesia were known for breakdowns and even fires, forcing operators to rely on Japanese and European brands. Now, Iqbal says the new electric models are easier and more comfortable to drive. “It's more comfortable to drive this electric bus,” he said. “It uses an automatic transmission, and drivers don't have to queue at the gas station each [night] before returning [the buses].”
Nikkei 
Growth is also spreading regionally. Malaysia operates more than 140 electric buses and plans to deploy thousands over the next five years. Singapore has already ordered hundreds of electric buses from Chinese suppliers and aims to electrify half its fleet by 2030. The Philippines and Indonesia have set similar targets, driven by national EV policies.
Vietnam and Thailand are exceptions. Vietnam’s local manufacturer VinFast dominates its electric bus market, while Thailand is prioritizing rail investment over bus electrification.
The rapid expansion has also raised cybersecurity concerns. In November, Norway’s public transport operator warned that Chinese-made buses could be vulnerable to remote manipulation, prompting investigations in Europe. Chinese manufacturer Yutong rejected the claim. Indonesian cybersecurity expert Pratama Persadha cautioned that vehicle data could be exploited and urged governments to require cyberaudits for imported EV systems. As analyst Mark Manantan put it, “Whoever the company is, there will always be a cybersecurity risk.”
“The United States urges governments to protect their borders and defend their citizens against the human rights abuses caused by mass migration. The United States stands ready to work alongside nations across the Western Hemisphere to end the global crisis of mass migration.”
According to the United Nations’ International Migrant Stock 
Many suspected the FBI, operating under Joe Biden, was slow-walking disclosure out of concern that the contents would undermine the preferred narrative at the time—that “white supremacy” was the most significant domestic terror threat facing the country, as well as the possible negative implications for the transgender community.
The FBI
"We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact," he wrote on Truth Social, adding that federal forces will "come back" if crime spikes again.
Earlier this month a federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles, and also directed the administration to return control of the Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom - until an appeals court paused the latter.
In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the development a “major litigation victory” in a press release Wednesday. -AP
In October, however, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland as a legal challenge progresses - however in November, a judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there following a three-day trial.
The decision to pull troops also comes a week after the Supreme Court refused to allow the admin to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to aid in ICE efforts to remove illegals. The order was not a final ruling, but marked a rare setback by the SCOTUS in regards to Trump's efforts.
"Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in," Trump's post continues. "We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!"
In November, US Northern Command said it was "shifting and/or rightsizing" operations in Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles, but that there would be a "constant, enduring and long-term presence in each city."
Trump has made a crackdown on crime a centerpiece of his second term, and has teased the use of the Insurrection Act to stop Democrats from using the courts to block his plans.
Shipping data published by Lloyd's List on Tuesday shows the Thousand Sunny is expected to arrive at Venezuela's Jose Terminal in mid-January after rounding the Cape of Good Hope empty in the southern Atlantic, 
Both the State Department and China's Foreign Ministry have remained mum on the vessels' movements.
The high-stakes voyages come as President Donald Trump 
But the residents of the Big Apple and Josephine have something in common—controversy over the construction of a mosque.
Perhaps not since the “Ground Zero Mosque” was proposed two blocks from the World Trade Center site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has a mosque drawn so much attention.
The proposed 2009 Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center was known as Park 51. It faced sharp public criticism for plans to place a symbol of Islam so close to where thousands died from an attack by radical jihadists. Groups such as Stop Islamization of America led protests against “radical Islam” before the project was eventually abandoned.
More than a decade later, as Muslim migration to Texas has increased, a similar uproar has risen over a proposed Muslim-focused neighborhood anchored by a mosque in rural Texas, some 40 miles from Dallas.
Promotional materials first described EPIC City, named after the East Plano Islamic Center, as the “epicenter of Islam in America.”
Following backlash at the local, state, and federal levels, it changed its name to The Meadow.
The development would encompass 402 acres of farmland outside Josephine, a town of 8,800 residents founded in 1888 by a railroad company back when cotton was king in Texas.
It would include 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, sports facilities, a community college, senior housing, an outreach center, and businesses.
Since the idea was proposed, numerous public officials and community members have worked to halt the development, citing concerns about whether the new community would integrate with the local population and asking questions over sharia—Islamic law—and potential ties to foreign Islamic groups.
The development has prompted legal battles, state and federal investigations, and new state laws addressing neighborhood composition and foreign ownership. The ongoing battle included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott classifying some Islamic groups as foreign terrorist organizations; and the White House is considering similar action.
A new mosque is the centerpiece of the proposed EPIC City, described as the “epicenter of Islam in America.” The city was renamed The Meadow after backlash at the local, state, and federal levels. Republican leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and residents have opposed the proposed 402-acre Muslim development outside the rural town of Josephine, Texas. Rendering from Texas legal documents
Grassroots Backlash
The Muslim-led community would be located in an area largely populated by white and Hispanic residents whose religion is predominantly Christian.
Locally, residents have voiced concerns about Islamic radicalization and sharia law in communities they believe may not integrate into U.S. culture, despite the developer’s denials.
Sharia law is an Islamic code of conduct and law derived from the Quran, often at odds with laws and rights in Western countries.
One woman who spoke at a Collin County Commissioners Court meeting in November raised concerns that sharia would replace U.S. law within the development.
“This remains an Islamic-focused community, and Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our Constitution,” she said.
At the Josephine City Council meeting, a resident of Armenian descent said people should be aware that, in his view, Islam is only peaceful when it is not in control.
“Islam is not truly a religion of peace,“ he added. ”Once they get to a certain point in a culture, they start to ravage it from within.”
Most Muslims are good people, he said, but when their religious ideology demands it, they feel compelled to obey. “They don’t speak up against it.”
He referenced historical events, saying the West should consider the Armenian genocide over a century ago under the Ottoman Empire, which imposed sharia.
“We were walked into the Syrian desert until we died of hunger, of starvation. They hung Christian females to posts and lit them on fire as candles,” he said.
As public concerns intensified, state officials stepped up their efforts to address them.
Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a 
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a press conference in Anzalduas Park near McAllen, Texas, on April 28, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times
The lawsuit claims the housing development would be illegally reserved for Muslim residents. It also asserts that the project’s leaders “lined their own pockets” with funds during development.
Abbott took to social media on Dec. 3, 
People watch construction at the World Trade Center site in New York City on Aug. 16, 2010. The proposed Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center, known as Park51, drew sharp criticism in 2009 over plans to locate it near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
High-profile Texas attorney Dan Cogdell, who represents developer Community Capital Partners,
a press conference in the spring as the pressure campaign against the development ramped up.
“My clients are law-abiding Texans, law-abiding Americans, and law-abiding Muslims,” he said.
He added that no one associated with the community follows or implements sharia and that Abbott was attempting to “demonize” Muslims.
Neither EPIC nor Cogdell responded to requests for comment.
State Legislation
Republicans campaigning in the Lone Star state are tapping into public unease over mass immigration and the increase in terrorist incidents, such as the Nov. 26 shooting of two Washington D.C. guardsmen by an Afghan immigrant.
Abbott is currently seeking his fourth term as governor, while Paxton is running in the Senate Republican primary against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
In a flurry of activity this fall, Abbott took steps to block foreign threats and developments in Texas.
In September, he signed House Bill 4211 into 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs a bill at the state Capitol in Austin on April 23, 2025. Earlier this year, Abbott signed measures that would curb exclusionary residential compounds—citing the EPIC project—and restrict land purchases by foreign adversaries and transnational criminal groups. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
On Nov. 18, Abbott cited these laws in a 
Demonstrators attend a rally with the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero in New York City on Aug. 22, 2010. The rally was held to oppose the construction of an Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images
‘A Different Population’
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, said public fears over Muslim enclaves and mass migration are symptoms of a brewing national identity crisis.
Americans fear they are losing their culture and way of life to foreign influences, including those from the Middle East, he told The Epoch Times.
The foreign-born population of the United States currently sits at about 16 percent—the highest in history, 
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix on Dec. 20, 2025. Gabbard warned against “Islamist ideology” and sharia taking over the West. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
Hankinson, a British immigrant, said that native-born English citizens are now the minority in London.
“If you replace a population with a different population, then everything’s going to change,” he said.
But immigration is not accidental; it is a policy choice that voters make, he said.
Small groups of immigrants with cultures similar to those of the areas they move to tend to assimilate, such as Ukrainians settling in Poland, he said.
Enclaves of culturally diverse immigrants have been accepted when they are localized and relatively small, he said. But large groups of people coming into a country will change that society.
“I think Americans are noticing, and some of them probably don’t like it,” he said.
Ammon Blair, a security consultant and senior fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Nation Initiative, said the mass migration that occurred during the Biden administration was different from past migrations.
“This is a completely engineered, fabricated form of immigration where it’s done for the sole purpose of eradicating the sovereignty of a nation and state,” he told The Epoch Times.
Blair pointed to large immigrant settlements that sometimes remain under the control of the countries they left, making assimilation difficult.
Muslims pray at a mosque during Friday prayers in Plano, Texas, on April 11, 2025. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
This March, President Trump asserted in a 
The minute-long ball drop is among the planet’s most viewed annual live events.
At least 
The 6-foot 
"This is for visibility and really to keep our citizens safe," Harper said. "It's another tool in the toolbox and another layer of security."
Louisiana National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins said the Guard will support local, state, and federal law enforcement to "enhance capabilities, stabilize the environment, assist in reducing crime, and restore public trust."
However, our assessment is that the presence of National Guard troops in certain major U.S. cities is less about routine crime suppression and more about a broader terror threat.
Earlier this month, NCTC's Kent told the House Homeland Security Committee that the agency has 
"What if I told you our national debt is the tab for the mass looting of the American economy and the mass theft of the American dream?" White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller wrote on X.
X user 
By Tuesday, Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin's investigation into 
A Dec. 30 
On MS NOW’s “All In,” Swalwell was asked by host Jason Johnson:
“What would you do if you are able to be elected as governor of California? … What would you bring to the table as a governor of California?”
Swalwell responded:
“Well, you have immense powers as governor of California and your responsibility to protect the most vulnerable in the state. So if the president is going to send ICE agents to chase immigrants through the fields where they work, what I’m going to do is make sure that they take off their masks and show their faces, that they show their identification. And if they commit crimes that they’re going to be charged with crimes, if it’s falsely imprisoning people, if it’s kidnapping, if it’s assault battery, they’re going to be held accountable. I also think if the governor has the ability to issue driver’s licenses to people in California, if you’re going to wear a mask and not identify yourself, you’re not going to be eligible to drive a vehicle in California. There’s a lot you can do, but most importantly, you have to go on offense. Otherwise, the most vulnerable in our community will always be on defense.”
Democrats appear to be morphing into predecessors like Gov. George Wallace (D., Ala.), pledging to defy federal authority and bar federal agents from their states. Wallace also 
One thing is clear - it is growing by the hour as the movement has spread to several other cities on Tuesday, and now after three consecutive days is gong from the shop and business districts to the universities. Regional news sources say protests have hit at least ten universities across the Islamic Republic, including seven in Tehran.
Prior protest movements have really taken off once the youth get involved on a large scale. This current round, largely economically driven, could become the biggest yet - given it is tapping into a multitude of demographics.
With fast-moving protests gaining more steam, things are set for clashes with police and potentially even military operatives, given Iran's prosecutor general has newly pledged a "decisive response" if protests spiral into violence. State media has quoted the official, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, as saying that while peaceful protests are legitimate, any attempt to create insecurity would draw a harsh reaction.
But he already pointed the finger at the potential for external interference: "Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response," warned Movahedi-Azad. This has been a common allegation in past uprisings, and not without precedent.
Protests in Iran continue to spread across several cities on their fourth day, with universities and additional workers' unions joining the demonstrations. In the southern city of Fasa, initial reports of protestors seizing control of the governor's building following the retreat… 
The allegation is that Ukraine's military launched 91 long-range strike drones at the presidential compound in Novgorod Region on Sunday night into early Monday, but that anti-air defenses intercepted all of them, and there was no damage or casualties.
The Zelensky government has rejected this account, calling it a "fabrication" and says there was no effort to target Putin's home. This denial was followed by demands for evidence.
On Wednesday the Russian government and state media have publicized various items of evidence said to prove the attack took place, also accompanied with interviews of various Russian citizen eyewitnesses from the area that night.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry newly released a map showing the flightpath of the Ukrainian long-range drones that targeted the presidential residence in Novgorod Region.
Additionally, Russia's Defense Ministry has published footage purporting to show the debris of one of the UAVs which had apparently been downed in the attack.
The ministry 
He stumped the chumps.
The “chumps” in this case were the “blue chip” academic and financial economists whose consensus forecast this time last year was for high inflation and low economic growth. Wrong on both counts.
As you’ve probably heard, the GDP growth for Q3 came in at a red hot 4.3% following 3.5% for the second quarter. Some 90% of the professional economists got it wrong — all underestimating the strength of the Trump economy. QED: these weren’t random errors. These were “hate Trump” errors.
They also predicted inflation of above 3% for 2025. It’s going to come in at closer to 2.7% with the last two months trending down to the Fed inflation target of 2%.
Starting in the second quarter, GDP has been nearly twice as high as predicted.
To quote the inimitable special agent Maxwell Smart: “Missed it by that much.”
This isn’t the first time the whiz kids whiffed on the Trump economy.
These are the same Keynesian economists who warned at the start of Trump’s first term that we would see a stock market crash. (The stock market is today at record highs on all three indices. Paul Krugman, who won a Nobel prize in economics, and wrote regularly for the New York Times for years, famously feared a second Great Depression if Trump policies took hold).
Krugman and others all thought Trump’s tariffs would ignite runaway inflation.
There’s no doubt tariffs did cause a rise in aluminum, coffee and beef prices – commodities that got hit by tariffs as high as 50%. But the economic pundits failed to take account of the disinflationary effect of pro-growth policies like deregulation, Trump tax rate cuts, and pro-America energy policies. These counteracted the impact of tariffs on prices overall.
One would have thought that the academics and media would have learned from their mistakes of always underestimating Trump on the economy. But they seem incapable of self-correcting. They keep doubling-down on dire predictions about Trumponomics.
The latest blue chip forecast for economic growth for 2026 is a measly 1.9% even though the economy has been growing 50% faster than that of late.
This raises the question: why are they persistently wrong? It could be that they are so afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome that they can’t see or shoot straight. Or perhaps they WANT Trump to fail so their judgment is impaired. No one likes their theories, orthodoxies, and core beliefs to be proven wrong.
The forecasts of the “hate Trump” sages are about as accurate as a blind man tossing darts at a dartboard in a crowded bar.
If these blue chippers had any integrity, they’d admit that they don’t know what they are talking about.
Fat chance that will ever happen. Instead these prophets of doom will continue to give the entire economics profession a black eye. No wonder it is known as “the dismal science.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation or ZeroHedge.
But what Krugman, and so many other "experts" failed to understand is that, in keeping with the pattern set by the first Trump admin the president was setting new precedent and aggressively negotiating, leading not to a recession, but many new trade deals - all at far more advantageous terms to the us - with little of the "imminent" inflation passing through to US consumers as it was exporters (
The result was that the initial surge in trade uncertainty, which was loudly cheered on by liberal economists as it confirmed their anti-Trump bias, promptly faded...
... and recession fears disappeared almost as fast as they had emerged.
And while the inflation from Trump's tariffs has yet to emerge, the benefits in the form of almost $400BN in annualized tariff revenues are already here, and could have been used to lower the US budget deficit...
... if there was any hope that the US could ever spend less, which unfortunately is no longer feasible with the US 
... largely due to the now recurring $100+ billion in monthly interest expense on US debt.
And while politics - and the constant daily declarations from Trump's Truth Social account - certainly meant much less sleep for anyone in 2025, one can certainly argue that innovation, in a broad sense, and especially AI technology, was as important as politics this year and certainly helped lift the US economy from a far worse place.
To be sure, the year started off on the right foot, with names that have become synonymous with the AI boom like Nvidia soaring, as Wall Street was content that investment in AI would continue to grow exponentially, as the following charts show.
Optimism was also lifted amid reports that AI adoption was rising (even if as Goldman noted, it was due to a purposefully phrased question designed to give the impression that adoption was rising). The trade off to increased AI adoption - far more concerning in the short-run for politicians desperate for votes - is that both overall tech and especially youth unemployment, are rising dangerously fast, potentially leading to a sharp deterioration in the US labor market, assuming the AI cycle goes as planned... and the US wins the US-China AI war.
That outcome is far from certain, however, and it finally dawned on the market that the flurry of recent developments in the AI sector...
... was - as 
... resulting in a painful swoon for much of the AI sector in the second half amid renewed concerns about AI returns on investment, and the risk of a full-blown bubble which may burst any second
In any case, the reality is that we have seen chatbots come and go, and the world always moved on to a new, bigger and shinier fad. This time, however, prices may have pulled just a little bit too much from the future, as this breakdown of the Mag7 vs the S&P shows.
In any event, we don't have that much new to add here: 
Actually, we do want to highlight one pretty notable change, and this one could be critical for the 2026 midterms: after two years of coasting on available grid capacity, the rampant data center buildout means that energy has officially become the bottleneck, and as the following chart from Goldman shows, eight out of the 13 US regional power markets are already at or below critical spare capacity levels.
Add to this the stark reality that Nvidia's upcoming Rubin/Rubin Ultra GPUs will be power hogs, raising the electricity demand for every rack from roughly 150kW to 300/600kW...
... and we stand by our claim made this summer that this chart of US electricity inflation - 
... providing a natural buyer of short-term debt and serving as a Plan B to the Fed's upcoming mega QE, because you didn't think all that debt that will be needed to fund the AI cycle - 
And speaking of the Fed, our nemesis since day one of this website when gold was $700 and bitcoin didn't exist, it is gratifying to see that the US central bank is circling the drain ever faster, and is likely at most a few years away from losing its "independence" - which never actually existed - and merging with the Treasury. Until then, however, the question is when will it all fall apart, with both the debt and deficit hitting daily record highs, while the interest on public debt at unprecedented levels, and well over $1 trillion now, despite 10Y yields just over 4%.
The rapidly deteriorating US fiscal situation was not lost on the rating agencies, and in May, Moody's became the 3rd and last of the big three (after S&P and Fitch) to downgrade the US from the pristine Aaa to Aa1 citing the increase in government debt owing to increased spending and reduced tax revenues, as well as the growing federal interest payments.
Downgraded or not, the dismal US fiscal picture got even worse in 2025 and despite some modest hopes that Elon Musk and DOGE would at least seek to slow down the relentless increase in US debt, that did not happen and on the contrary, total US debt rose by over $2 trillion this year to a new high of $38.4 trillion, more than tripling the debt load since 2010.
To be sure, this wasn't just a US phenomenon, with debt ratios across the entire world already at nosebleed levels and expected to rise even higher to pay for unsustainable deficits across all economies but especially among emerging markets.
Yet the US was unique in that the status of the Fed is increasingly being challenged by Trump, who has made his displeasure with Fed Chair Powell quite public.
Ironically in the end Trump's appeals for lower rates which saw much pushback by the Fed in early 2025 come to fruition when the Fed not only resumed its rate cuts in late 2025 (despite growing political opposition inside the Fed) but culminated in the Fed restarting QE Lite earlier this month, when Powell revealed that as part of the funding plans for 2026, the Fed would proceed to monetize $40 billion in T-Bills (to start), a number which will only grow.
None of this was lost on the market, and while stocks staged a dramatic rebound from their Liberation Day lows and closed out the year at all time highs (more on the below), that move was nothing compared to the historic eruption in precious metals - which are far more sensitive to the monetary and fiscal challenges facing the US - and which had their best year since 1979, with gold up 70% and silver almost tripling at one point!
The last major theme of 2025 was a familiar one: geopolitics remained on the front page of most daily updates, only this time in addition to the hot war in Ukraine which entered its 4th year with little progress in sight, despite repeated attempts by Trump to mediate...
... prompting Europe to rapidly rearms itself for the first time since WW2 (and spend hundreds of billions in newly issued debt in the process)...
... we got to witness a new cold war erupt between the US and China as the tech race to win the AGI trophy quickly became the 21st century version of the nuclear arms race...
... amid a push for semiconductor...
... and rare-earth self sufficiency.
But while the four macro themes list above defined the narrative, the economy and the stock market across 2025, the day-to-day gyrations were defined by what at time seemed like unabashedly chaotic newsflow; and as we take a stroll through memory lane, here is a detailed look at the micro events that shaped trading across the past 11 months, courtesy of Bobby Vedral's Macro Eagle monthly email:
January:
Nvidia suffered the biggest single-day USD market cap drop ever when China launched a computational missile (“DeepSeek”) on US Inauguration Day, wiping out $1trn in market cap from Nvidia.
Fires raged; it was the costliest natural catastrophe in US history.
UK fiscal panic: 10 year government yields reached a high since the 2008 financial crisis, while 30 year government yields reached their highest since 1998.
Trump easily broke the record for Executive Orders issued per day in office.
A test aircraft by US start-up Boom broke the sound barrier, the first supersonic commercial travel since Concorde was grounded in 2003.
February:
Due of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine policy, the Russian Ruble rallied 20%+ YTD.
Bitcoin dropped 25% since it’s January highs, entering Bear Market – middle graph.
DOGE induced a fall in consumer sentiment.
The DAX hit new all-time-highs despite worrying German election results with significant gains for the hard-left and -right.
Gold reached a new all-time-high.
The US Conference Board consumer confidence recorded its biggest monthly drop in 4 years.
The US reported a record trade deficit in January, thanks to tariff expectations.
The biggest ever crypto hack of $1.5bn from Bybit.
Births in Japan fell to their lowest since records began 125 years ago.
March:
Daily stock market volatility picked up significantly.
US consumer long-term inflation expectations hit a 32 year high.
US consumer confidence fell to “the lowest level in 12 years, outside Covid – right graph.
US Small Business uncertainty index near highest since survey started in 1970.
Gold rose above $3,100 for the first time.
Private Equity AUM fell 2% to $4.7tn in 2024, the first decline since 2005 as investors faced a $3trn backlog of unsold deals.
Trump’s 100 minutes speech was the longest presidential address to Congress ever.
BYD shares reached a record high after it said it could now charge its EVs as quickly as it took to fill a car with petrol.
Germany’s Bundestag approved the biggest fiscal expansion in the country’s post-war history.
April:
Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.
US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.
This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.
University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.
Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.
Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.
The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.
Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.
Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.
May:
Highest effective US tariff rate since 1934/1909 – left graph.
US equities recorded their worst weekly performance outside the 2008 Financial Crisi and Covid.
This was followed by the best winning nine-day streak since 2004.
University of Michigan consumer confidence fell to its second-lowest score since 1952.
Gold hit another record high crossing $3400.
Worst “first 100 days” for the Dow and S&P500 since Nixon.
The dollar recorded its worst performance year-to-date since at least 1995.
Pope Francis died: the new pope became the first pope from the Americas and Southern Hemisphere and first non-European since Syria-born Gregory III in 741 AD.
Deadliest terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir since the start of the insurgency in 1989.
June:
Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, the biggest military assault on the Islamic Republic since the Iraq War of the 1980s – sending oil prices skyrocketing. The cost of a barrel of Brent Crude leapt by as much as 13.2% to hit $78.50.
The US joined the fight, dropping various GBU-57, the world’s largest conventional bomb.
Elon Musk, who was crucial in the re-election of Donald Trump had a high profile falling out with him.
Earlier, Ukraine released killer drones from trucks to hit strategic bombers deep inside Russia.
Despite the geopolitical turmoil, the S&P500 hit a new all-time-high.
The ECB reported that global central banks now hold as much gold as they did in 1965.
After riots in LA, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard despite the objections the governor – making it the first time since 1965 a US president deployed the National Guard without a governor’s consent.
In the Democratic mayoral primary race for New York City, Andrew Cuomo lost to the 33 year old ‘Democratic Socialist’ Zohran Mamdani, despite raising a record $25m for his PAC.
It was reported that UK vehicle production collapsed in May to the lowest level since 1949.
Dubbed “the world’s most expensive acquisition”, Meta bought 49% of Scale AI for $14.3bn, valuing it at more than 30x revenues.
July:
NVIDIA became the first $4 trillion company, followed by Microsoft.
The Cryptocurrency market broke $4trn in market cap following the passage of the Genius Act.
The Big Beautiful Bill was signed by President Trump.
CME copper prices recorded their biggest ever 1-day fall, after President Trump excluded refined metals from tariffs.
In the month of July, the US collected a monthly record of $29bn in tariffs.
In Japan the ruling LDP party lost its majority in the upper house. Fiscal worries sent 20 year JGB yields to their highest since 2000.
Global credit spreads hit a 2007 low.
London stock market had their slowest first half of a year for IPO’s since 1997.
Two governors dissented with the Federal Open Market Committee rate setting decision – a first such split in 30 years.
August:
Japanese equities hit new all-time-highs on trade optimism and fiscal stimulus expectations.
Chinese equities rallied, with the Shanghai Composite hitting a fresh 10 year high.
UK 30 year debt yields rose to a 28-year high amid inflation and fiscal sustainability concerns – higher than the levels they reached following Lizz Truss’s ‘Mini-Budget’.
Corporate credit spreads hit new record lows.
Trump federalized Washington DC’s police operations under the 1973 DC Home Rule Act.
First time a US president has tried to sack a governor of the Federal Reserve.
It was reported that global central bank holdings of gold overtook those of US Treasuries as % of foreign reserves.
Indian rupee tumbled to a new record low against the dollar, dragged by tariff concerns.
September:
China’s Shanghai Composite rose above 3,800 for the first time in ten years.
The $55bn leveraged buy-out of Electronic Arts is the largest leveraged buy-out ever.
NATO saw the most serious incursion into its territory since the start of the alliance.
Japan’s ruling LDP chose the country’s first female PM and, trying to beat the French, their fifth PM in five years.
Jair Bolsonaro became the first former president in Brazil’s to be sentenced to prison – 27 years.
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first ever French president to be sentenced to prison – 5 years.
Israel launched an airstrike against a Hamas leader meeting in Doha, it’s first ever attack on Qatar. This was followed by Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza – bringing two years of hostilities to an end.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, became the first Syrian head of state to address the UN General Assembly since 1967.
October:
Nvidia became the first company ever to cross $5trn in market cap.
The US stock market valuation vs US GDP ratio hit a record 225% vs an average of 85% since 1970.
Silver crossed $50 for the first time since the Hunt Brothers cornered the market in 1980 – middle graph.
China deployed rare earth restrictions.
OpenAI became the world’s most valuable startup raising $6.6bn at a price tag of $500bn.
The Nikkei rose 16% in October, its best monthly performance since 1990.
Takaichi Sanae became Japan’s 104th and first female PM.
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former French head of state to be jailed since Marshal Petain after WWII, and before that Louis XVI in 1792.
Hurricane Melissa became the first ever category-five hurricane to hit Jamaica.
The Dutch government took over Chinese-owned Nexperia by invoking a 73-year old Cold War national security law for the first time ever
November:
AI angst, crypto-crash and hawkish Fed speak made November look very shaky, only to be saved in the last week by (1) dovish talk from Fed Williams & Waller and (2) economic data misses, which brought a December Fed cut back on the table.
The longest ever US government which began on October 1, 2025, and lasted for 43 days ended on November 13th.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics cancelled the October Job data report, the first forgone monthly report ever.
Bitcoin lost 1/3 of its value between Oct 6th and November 22nd – it’s biggest market value loss ever.
US Consumer Sentiment fell to near lowest on record.
The Challenger layoff announcements surged to a 22 year high.
Silver hit a new all-time high
Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York, the first to win over a million votes since John Lindsay in 1969
Answering a question on Taiwan, Japan’s new PM made the country’s first overt threat of force in 80 years.
Hong Kong witnessed the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980, with 159 people killed
The G20 summit was held in South Africa, the first ever in an African country.
Next, let's do a quick a recap of the main market events of 2025, where as Goldman's top trader John Flood reminds us, positive momentum from 2024 carried into January as investors remained optimistic on everything AI and a pro-business administration squarely focused on deregulation. The first real test of the year came on January 27th, aka "DeepSeek Monday." The Chinese AI company released its chatbot which led to a sharp drawdown in global technology stocks. Investors worried that the AI hardware and large-model business architype might be disrupted with significantly cheaper (yet still efficient) models like DeepSeek potentially having the ability to knock off some of the biggest players. However, these fears tuned out to be relatively short lived as the AI complex quickly regained its footing and soared higher over the course of the year (it still remains the case that China will be able to confront US technology with much cheaper and just as efficient tech of its own).
Due to a bout of extreme factor volatility, March 7 and March 10 will go down as one of the worst two-day stretches of hedge fund performance in years (multistrat-mageddon). The momentum factor experienced a 4+ standard deviation drawdown which led to forced derisking across various types of HF strategies. On the flip side, this episode also led to cleaner positioning as traders braced to enter the second quarter.
Donald Trump’s "Liberation Day" will be remembered as the most impactful event on the US stock market in 2025. After the market close on April 2, the president announced sweeping new tariffs on imports and famously held up his big boards with startling rates for the world to digest. The S&P 500 promptly lost 13% in the next weeks, from April 3 through 8, and closed under 5k on April 8, which was also the low close of the year. However, on April 9, Trump announced a 90 day pause on tariffs causing the S&P 500 to experience it sharpest intraday reversal since 2008 (the index closed +952bps on the day). This set the stage for the S&P 500 to make 36 additional record closes in 2025 (there have been 39 total this year).
After Liberation Day, a majority of professional institutional investors remained skeptical of the market’s rally and stayed on the sidelines. The most common reasons cited for this skepticism were geopolitical/macro/policy uncertainty, rich valuations, and poor market breadth. As a result, fundamental long/short HF net exposure spent most of the year well below the 50th percentile rank. Mutual Funds also sat on a significant amount of cash until the 4th quarter (when it was too late). As a result, only 28% of large cap mutual funds are outperforming their benchmarks, the lowest share since 2019...
... while the average fundamental long/short hedge fund underperformed the S&P 500 by 200bps, which is yet another reason for the relentless rotation out of actively managed funds and into much cheaper, passive ones which deliver the same if not better results.
Goldman's sentiment indicator spent most of the year in negative territory reflecting light institutional investor positioning, as the wall of worry has been extremely high this year and remains omnipresent. Furthermore, the stubbornly high short interest across the S&P suggests markets will likely continue to see bouts of short squeezes, pushing them above fair value.
As we have detailed extensively throughout 2025, three investor groups that have shown up as noteworthy buyers of US stocks this year are the retail community, corporates, and foreigners. Goldman data shows that the well informed retail community now only consistently sells stocks when there is significant job loss (as in March of 2020). The retail cohort’s most significant buy imbalances were in early April post liberation day, when retail got it right and professional investors were dead wrong.
Meanwhile, companies again repurchased over $1 trillion of their shares in 2025 making it a top 3 buyback year in the history of the stock market, and as authorizations continue to ramp, $1 trillion annual corporate bids will be the new norm on the go forward, unless the Mag 7 are forced to plow all their free cash flow into capex... capex which accounted for a material portion of US growth in 2025.
The combination of aggressive retail buying and corporate buybacks provided a higher floor for the market at the index level, continuing to frustrate the HF and MF communities which just can't get a dip that's big enough for them to feel safe to buy. Meanwhile, despite ongoing debates around US exceptionalism (which contrary to leftist narratives, did not end when Trump entered the White House), foreign investors were the single largest source of US equity demand in 2025. Foreign investors bought nearly $280 billion in May and June this year, continuing the usual pattern of elevated foreign investor demand after the US dollar weakened and US equities underperformed.
Turning to the Fed, after putting rate cuts on hold in December 2024 - just after Trump won the election - Jerome Powell, facing a daily barrage of insults from Trump virtually non stop in 2025, pivoted back to dovish and cut rates by 25bps in September, October, and in December; not only that, but as noted above, the Fed resumed QE Lite announcing it would purchase a minimum of $40BN in Treasury Bills every month.
Lower rates, a weaker dollar, a resilient consumer, solid earnings, 2% GDP growth, and cautious sentiment make Goldman - and most other banks all of which have an average S&P price target well in the 7000 range - believe the US stock market will be the best place to be in 2026.
And speaking of Goldman, its baseline economic forecast is that growth reaccelerates to 2 - 2.5% in 2026 because of reduced tariff drag, tax cuts, and easier financial conditions. Standard models suggest that this should boost job creation and stabilize the unemployment rate at a level only modestly above September’s 4.44%. Under this forecast, the bank's core assumption is that the FOMC slows the pace of easing in the first half, pausing in January but still delivering two more cuts in March and June which push the funds rate down to a terminal level of 3 - 3.25%.
Finally, from John Flood's seat, an average of 17.5 billion shares traded across the US equity market each day this year. For context, this number was 10.8 billion shares in 2020. However, trading has never been more difficult as liquidity is hard to come by as this volume growth is happening off-exchange which traders cannot access. Over 75% of off-exchange volume now trades in OTC market centers, which includes retail flow mostly inaccessible to institutional investors. Fragmentation in the US markets poses further challenges with 16 exchanges, over 30 ATSs and hundreds of OTC liquidity destinations. The average trade size has dropped both on and off exchange, reaching a 15-year low this year of 150 shares per trade. Incidentally, the Retail bid should remain very strong in 2026 as tax refunds spike in early 2026 (2025 were never adjusted to reflect OBBBA and therefore many will be due a large refund). As Flood concludes, "knowing where the bodies lie" has never been more important.
Of course, 2025 was about much more than just markets, and one of the tragic developments of the increasingly polarized US society was the surge in political assassinations, which started in the summer of 2024 with the unsuccessful attempt on Donald Trump's life, escalated when a troubled young man murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December 2024 to make a political statement, and culminated in September 2025 when a radicalized and brainwashed 22-year-old assassinated Charlie Kirk in broad daylight. Unfortunately, with mental illness largely normalized by the liberal establishment, and with mainstream media brainwashing an entire generation into believing that "killing fascists is ok", we are confident that this is only the beginning and there will be many more political assassinations in 2026 and beyond.
But while tragic and inexcusable, the sad reality is that there is an entire generation of young Americans who feel an unprecedented degree of anxiety that the American Dream is now hopelessly lost. And, to an extent, one can't blame them: we started off this website in 2009 with a clear warning that the Fed is the single biggest enemy of American prosperity, the future of the American experiment, and the American way of life, because artificial growth boosted by trillions in budget deficits promptly monetized by the central bank, and culminating in a record $38+ trillion in debt (rising by $1 trillion every few months), which has to be inflated away sooner or later (and judging by the price of gold, it will be "sooner"), will inevitably lead to devastating consequences.
17 years later we have been proven right, as America's conversion into a banana republic is nearly complete with the vast majority of wealth now held by a handful of corporate shareholders, oligarchs and others within the top 1% of the wealth pyramid, while the middle class is disappearing at an exponential pace, drowned by the tide of rising prices. And with little hope to live for, it is understandable why so many young American men and women (and they/thems) are now willing to suicide themselves at the altar of generational disillusionment, but not before first making a deadly political statement.
In 2025, some tried to nudge the US off its doomed course with the iceberg of fiscal inevitably, most notably Elon Musk who launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in hopes of streamlining and eliminating waste within the US government. We were skeptical, and in 
We say this as one of the very first media outlets that was dubbed "conspiracy theorists" by the authorities, leading to repeat attempts to demonetize and deplatform us, and ultimately put us out of business. Oh yes, we've been there: we were suspended for half a year on Twitter for telling the truth about Covid, and then we lost most of our advertisers after the 
The bottom line, at least for us, is that the past five years have been a stark lesson in how quickly an ad-funded business can disintegrate in this world which makes the dystopian nightmare of 1984 seem more real each day, and we have since taken measures. Five years ago, 
But even ignoring the impact on prices, one can't just undo almost 20 years of central bank mistakes by willing them away (especially after Elon Musk and DOGE confirmed what we said at the start of the year, namely that the level of corruption and out of control spending is so embedded in every corridor of the US government that it will never be eradicated); after all it is the trillions and trillions in monetary stimulus, the helicopter money, the MMT idiocy, and the endless deficit funding by central banks that sent gold and silver into the clearest red alert warning yet that hyperinflation and a fiat collapse is looming, and that the current attempt to stuff 15 years of toothpaste back into the tube, will be a catastrophic disaster.
We are confident, however, that in the end it will be the very final backstoppers of the status quo regime, the central banking emperors of the New Normal, who will again be revealed as completely naked. When that happens and what happens after is anyone's guess. But, as we have promised - and delivered - every year for the past 17, we will be there to document every aspect of it.
Finally, and as always, we wish all our readers the best of luck in 2026, with much success in trading and every other avenue of life. We bid farewell to 2025 with our traditional and unwavering year-end promise: ZeroHedge will be there each and every day - usually with a cynical smile (and with the 
