🥫 Navy Drone Warfare Incoming

January 18, 2026

Last Time the Market Was This Expensive, Investors Waited 14 Years to Break Even

In 1999, the S&P 500 peaked. Then it took 14 years to gradually recover by 2013.

Today? Goldman Sachs sounds crazy forecasting 3% returns for 2024 to 2034.

But we’re currently seeing the highest price for the S&P 500 compared to earnings since the dot-com boom.

So, maybe that’s why they’re not alone; Vanguard projects about 5%.

In fact, now just about everything seems priced near all time highs. Equities, gold, crypto, etc.

But billionaires have long diversified a slice of their portfolios with one asset class that is poised to rebound.

It’s post war and contemporary art.

Sounds crazy, but over 70,000 investors have followed suit since 2019—with Masterworks.

You can invest in shares of artworks featuring Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more.

24 exits later, results speak for themselves: net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.*

My subscribers can skip the waitlist.

*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.

Three Minute Prepper - Navy Drone Warfare Incoming

Navy just announced drone boats are no longer experimental. Two medium displacement unmanned surface vessels, Sea Hunter and Seahawk, will deploy this year under fleet control assigned to surface forces. One drone will deploy with carrier strike group in 2026. Navy plans to stand up three early command USV divisions that can grow alongside service's foray into unmanned technologies. By 2027, Navy expects 11 MDUSVs in inventory growing to over 30 by 2030. Admiral said Navy anticipates exponential growth of unmanned systems over coming decades. Looking at projections moving out over future, by 2045 we expect about 45% of surface force to be unmanned systems. The future is now. Unmanned systems, autonomous systems, AI, it is not the future, it is happening right now. When Navy transitions experimental drones to operational deployment, when 45% of future surface force will be unmanned by 2045, when carrier groups deploy with autonomous vessels, those transitions are not modernization upgrades. Those transitions are preparations for conflicts where human casualties become unacceptable political costs.

China's gold backed yuan is mathematical impossibility. China holds roughly 2,300 tonnes of gold with market value around $200 billion against broad money supply exceeding $40 trillion. Less than 1% of yuan in circulation could be backed by gold. For yuan to be credibly convertible, China would need reserves perhaps 20 to 30 times larger, equivalent to many years of global gold production. Attempting to accumulate such volumes would send gold prices sharply higher, raise acquisition costs exponentially, and undermine credibility. Even if gold existed, convertibility would remain central obstacle. Yuan is not fully convertible even into other fiat currencies. Capital controls remain defining feature of China's financial system. When narratives about gold backed currencies collapse under basic arithmetic, when convertibility remains impossible due to capital controls, when accumulating required reserves would destroy market prices, those failures prove that only physical gold in personal possession provides real monetary insurance, not promises from governments with capital controls.

Trump threatened 10% tariff on eight European countries opposing Greenland deal including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Finland. Danish foreign minister now visiting NATO allies Oslo, London and Stockholm to discuss alliance's Arctic security strategy. Trump accused countries of playing very dangerous game after they sent few dozen troops to island as part of military drill. Denmark in cooperation with several European allies recently joined declaration stating Greenland is part of NATO and its security is shared responsibility of alliance members. When empires threaten tariffs on allies over territorial disputes, when foreign ministers conduct emergency diplomatic tours, when NATO declarations get written about Arctic territories, those escalations are not trade negotiations. Those escalations are early stages of alliance fractures.

Venezuela action was all about oil, dollars and gold. Dollar backed oil is essential to paper currency's survival which is precisely why figures like Gaddafi and Hussein who tried to sell oil outside dollar did not survive at all. US refineries are designed for heavy crude which Venezuela holds. Within hours of meeting representatives from China, Maduro was whisked away by special forces before larger arrangement could be met. Billions worth of Venezuelan gold was frozen in accounts at Bank of England. Central banks now hold more gold than USTs. Dollar share of global FX reserves has been sinking like stone in past two decades. If petrodollar weakens in any meaningful way, USTs already seeing dramatic decline in demand would fall even further. UST yields and cost of Uncle Sam's massive debt burden would become fatal rather than just embarrassing. Such scenario would compel Fed to initiate extraordinary money printing to support unloved IOUs, thereby debasing paper dollar even more and sending gold's relative valuations considerably higher. When regimes get removed hours after meeting with China about oil deals, when billions in gold get frozen in foreign banks, when central banks dump treasuries for gold while Navy deploys autonomous vessels and empires fracture over Arctic territories, preppers who stacked physical gold outside banking system, who understood that oil priced in gold remains more stable than oil priced in dollars, who recognized that desperate empires take desperate actions see pattern reaching terminal phase. System breaking. Gold confirming. Prepare accordingly.

Alex Simm
Head Editor, WeLovePrepping

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