On Friday, in a moment of predictive insight, Bank of America correctly warned that the greatest threat to EPS - i.e., markets - in the next 3 years "is an acceleration of global populism via taxation, regulation & government intervention." Just one day later, this warning to the financial establishment was starkly manifest in that ground zero for Europe's populist revolt, Italy, where the country's coalition government hinted at where the global populist wave is headed next when he slammed the country’s central bank leadership and stock market regulator, escalating its attacks on establishment figures ahead of the European parliamentary vote in May.

Matteo Salvini, the outspoken head of the anti-immigrant League party, said the Bank of Italy and Consob, the country’s stock market regulator, should be "reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero", or in other words eliminated, and that “fraudsters” who inflicted losses on Italian savers should "end up in prison for a long time."

As the FT notes, this latest broadside against Italy’s financial establishment comes as the two parties which are increasingly at odds with each other amid speculation Salvini may hold elections to become the sole leader of Italy, prepare to run against each other in the European parliamentary elections in May, a contest widely seen as a proxy for national polls. Meanwhile, both leaders have also increased their attacks against targets including the EU and French president Emmanuel Macron.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-10/salvini-calls-elimination-italys-central-bank-prison-time-fraudsters

I hope we have a lot of people here who like thinking about "what-if" scenarios. I want Anons to think about future scenarios. In a previous bread, I encouraged Anons to "write sci-fi" and that got misinterpreted. I'm not talking about trying to publish it commercially. I'm not talking about trying to make money. I'm not talking about famefagging. I'm talking about forecasting the future and using your imagination to try to adapt to reality.

Many good soldiers are excellent fiction writers (at least within the limited field of military fiction). Why? They have practiced wargames. They have imagined possible battles. They are motivated to think about possible future battles and the lessons of historical battles. Two relevant writers of military fiction are William S. Lind (civilian) and Pat Lang (warfighter). They write fiction not because they have literary aspirations, but because they have lessons of military science that should be taught in an accessible way.

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/

https://www.traditionalright.com/author/wslind/

In a previous bread someone suggested that a civil war in the USA might be triggered by a Unabomber type. I suppose that is possible, given the weirdness of the MK-ULTRA program. I can't prove that the Unabomber was an MK-ULTRA brainwashing victim, but I have seen arguments to that effect. The same Anon mentioned drug cartels, which are a very big threat IMHO, because MK-ULTRA-brainwashed Unabomber types are rare but drug lords are a dime a dozen.

I encourage Anons to think through various scenarios. You don't have to write it as fiction if that's not convenient. If I were more trained in military science I would probably write up such scenarios as a military white paper, not as fiction.