Apr 1 2026

California’s $91 Billion Warning


Posted originally on Apr 1, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Leaving California

California is now facing the consequences of policies that ignore reality. Between 2019 and 2023, the state lost a staggering $91.4 billion in income as residents relocated elsewhere, with another $11.9 billion leaving in just a single year. This is not a minor shift. This is a structural problem that is accelerating, not stabilizing.

What is driving this exodus is not complicated. California has one of the highest income tax rates in the country at 13.3%, and it treats capital gains as ordinary income. At the same time, housing costs remain among the highest in the nation, with median home prices still hovering well above $700,000 in many regions and far higher in major metro areas. When you combine taxation and cost of living, you create an environment where even high earners begin to question whether it is worth staying.

What is unfolding now is not just population loss. It is the migration of productive capital. Texas alone absorbed nearly $28 billion from California migrants. That represents businesses, investments, and long-term economic activity shifting away from California’s control. These are not low-income households leaving. These are higher earners, entrepreneurs, and investors who contribute disproportionately to the tax base.

You can see this reflected in the composition of those leaving. Higher-income households account for a significant share of outbound income, meaning a relatively small number of people are responsible for a very large portion of the loss. That is what makes this trend so dangerous. When even a small percentage of top earners relocate, the financial impact is magnified.

At the same time, California continues to face budget pressures despite high tax rates. The state has swung from large surpluses to deficits in a very short period, highlighting just how dependent it has become on a narrow base of high-income taxpayers. When that base begins to shrink or becomes more volatile, revenue becomes unpredictable.

There is also a broader business impact that is often overlooked. Companies are increasingly choosing to expand or relocate operations outside of California, citing regulatory burdens, energy costs, and taxation. When businesses leave or scale back, they take jobs and future investment with them, reinforcing the cycle of decline.

The danger is that once this process begins, it feeds on itself. As the tax base erodes, governments attempt to compensate by increasing taxes further or introducing new policies aimed at capturing more revenue. That approach does not solve the problem. It accelerates it. Each new measure signals to remaining taxpayers that conditions are unlikely to improve.

California is no longer operating in isolation. It is competing directly with other states that are actively positioning themselves to attract wealth. Lower taxes, lower costs, and fewer regulatory hurdles are not just policy choices. They are competitive advantages. This is why the trend continues despite efforts to counter it. Governments can pass new laws, increase spending, or attempt to attract investment, but if the underlying environment remains unfavorable, capital will continue to move. California is no longer the exception. It is becoming the example.

Apr 1 2026

UK Rental Prices Reach All-Time High


Posted originally on Mar 31, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Housing

According to the latest figures, rents in the UK have now reached 36.1% of average earnings, the highest level ever recorded. At the same time, average monthly rents have climbed toward roughly £1,300–£1,400 depending on the dataset, with London far exceeding that level. Once housing consumes more than one-third of income, discretionary spending collapses, and the broader economy stalls.

What the press consistently ignores is that this crisis is not being driven by “greedy landlords” or speculation. It is a supply crisis that has been building for decades. Britain now has roughly 1.6 million fewer affordable social homes than it did in 1981. That is a staggering figure. Governments have simply failed to replace what they once built, and then they layered on regulations, taxes, and energy mandates that drove private landlords out of the market.

We have already seen approximately 200,000 rental properties disappear in just a single year as smaller landlords exit due to rising costs, taxes, and regulatory burdens. This is exactly how governments create shortages. They attack the supply side and then pretend to be shocked when prices rise. It is the same pattern we see repeatedly throughout history, whether in Rome, France, or modern Europe.

At the same time, the cost of borrowing has risen sharply. Interest rates surged after 2022, making homeownership increasingly unattainable for many. That forced more people into the rental market, increasing demand precisely as supply was shrinking.

The situation is further complicated by the broader cost-of-living crisis. Real incomes have been under pressure for years, with essential expenses rising faster than wages. When you combine declining real income with rising housing costs, you are effectively squeezing the middle class out of existence. This is not sustainable, and it feeds directly into the civil unrest cycles we have been warning about going into 2026 and beyond.

Even when we see temporary relief, such as a slight slowdown in rent growth or a modest increase in housing supply, it does not solve the structural problem. The system is broken. You cannot regulate your way out of a supply shortage. You cannot tax your way to affordability. And you certainly cannot restore confidence by constantly shifting the rules.

What is unfolding in the UK real estate market is part of a much larger global trend. Governments are losing control of their economies because they refuse to address the real issue, which is the sovereign debt crisis and the need to maintain confidence. Instead, they are turning to regulation, digital oversight, and intervention, all of which only accelerate the decline.

Real estate has always been a reflection of confidence. When people believe in the future, they invest, they build, and they expand. When confidence collapses, they retreat, supply contracts, and prices rise in a distorted manner. That is precisely what we are witnessing today in Britain.

Categories:BRITAINReal Estate

Apr 1 2026

Sending Children to War — History Repeats in Iran


Posted originally on Mar 31, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Iranian child soldier during Iran-Iraq war, 1980. [1453x1058] : r/HistoryPorn

There are moments in history that expose the true nature of a regime, and what we are seeing now coming out of Iran is one of them. Reports indicate that the government is once again preparing for the possibility of deploying children into conflict, even going so far as to produce uniforms sized for minors. This is not propaganda, this is preparation. When a state begins organizing for the use of children in war, it is no longer operating within any civilized framework. It is operating purely on ideology and survival.

According to recent reports, Iran has been mobilizing youth structures tied to the regime, signaling that minors could be drawn into the conflict if escalation continues. The fact that children’s uniforms already exist tells you everything you need to know.

Iran is no stranger to putting children in harm’s way. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the regime openly used child soldiers. They sent young boys to clear minefields, often with nothing more than a plastic or brass “Key to Heaven” around their necks, promising them entry into paradise if they died. Thousands of children were sacrificed under the banner of ideology.

Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq Training Children for War - NCRI

Iran drove Iraqi forces out by 1982. The conflict could have ended years earlier, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Instead, Ayatollah Khomeini chose to prolong the war in pursuit of a broader ideological goal, the overthrow of the Iraqi Baathist regime and the expansion of the revolution. That decision led to years of unnecessary bloodshed, including the deaths of countless children sent to the front lines.

And now we are seeing the same mindset re-emerge. When a government begins to prepare children for war, it is not because it has run out of options. It is because it prioritizes ideology over human life. It reflects a system that is willing to sacrifice its own population to maintain power or pursue a broader geopolitical objective. That is always the hallmark of regimes that are under extreme pressure, both internally and externally.

The Economic Confidence Model has been warning that we are entering a period of rising geopolitical instability into 2027 and beyond. What we are seeing in Iran fits that pattern precisely. As tensions escalate, governments begin to take more extreme measures, and the line between military necessity and ideological fanaticism begins to disappear. The use of children in war is not a sign of strength. It is a sign that a regime is willing to cross any boundary to survive.

Once a government begins sacrificing its own future generation, it has already entered a dangerous phase. Iran has done this before. The evidence is undeniable. The only question now is whether the world will recognize the warning signs, or once again look back years from now and ask how such a tragedy was allowed to happen again.

Apr 1 2026

Grandmother Falsely Imprisoned Thanks to AI Biometrics Fail


Posted originally on Mar 31, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Red Light Camera

A grandmother, Angela Lipps, was arrested at gunpoint in her own home after facial recognition software flagged her as a suspect in a bank fraud case in North Dakota, a state she had never even visited. Authorities relied on AI-generated matches from surveillance footage and compared those results to her driver’s license and social media photos. That was enough to issue a warrant.

She was jailed for months, extradited over 1,000 miles, and held without meaningful review until her attorney presented simple bank records proving she was in Tennessee at the time of the alleged crime.

The case collapsed almost immediately, but by then she had lost her home, her car, and even her dog. This is what happens when governments begin to trust machines more than basic investigation.

AI is not intelligence. It is pattern recognition. It compares images, identifies similarities, and produces probabilities. It does not understand context, intent, or truth. Yet those probabilities are now being treated as evidence. That is where the system breaks down. Once a machine flags someone, the burden shifts onto the individual to prove innocence rather than on the state to prove guilt.

We have already seen this before. There have been multiple cases across the United States where facial recognition systems misidentified individuals, leading to wrongful arrests. In each case, the same pattern emerges. The software produces a match and investigators build a case around it instead of questioning it. Basic verification steps are skipped because the assumption is that the system is correct.

The problem is that people assume AI is the end-all, be-all of supreme knowledge. Every output is treated as fact. That is how you end up with someone sitting in jail for months for a crime they did not commit.

This ties directly into what we are seeing more broadly with artificial intelligence. Even inside the tech industry, there are growing concerns about how these systems are being deployed. The recent resignation of a senior figure at OpenAI raised alarms about the pace at which AI is advancing compared to the safeguards in place. Concerns were expressed about the risks of misuse, lack of oversight, and the potential for these systems to be weaponized in ways that were never intended. When those closest to the system begin warning about its misuse, it should not be ignored.

Governments are already expanding surveillance, tracking financial transactions, and building digital identity frameworks. AI becomes the engine that ties all of this together. It allows systems to flag individuals automatically, at scale, without human judgment.

Once that infrastructure is in place, the implications are enormous. You can be flagged, investigated, or even detained based on data patterns that may be incorrect. And by the time the mistake is discovered, the damage is already done.

What happened in Tennessee is a warning of what happens when accountability is removed from the process. It took minutes to prove she was innocent. It took months for the system to admit it was wrong. This is the risk of replacing judgment with algorithms.

Apr 1 2026

Secretary Marco Rubio Outlines Reason for U.S. Military Action in Iran


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance

Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a complete outline of why the Trump administration finally took action against Iran.  Delivering the full explanation in under two minutes, Secretary Rubio directly and succinctly states why U.S. military action was needed, and what the ultimate end game is for that action.  WATCH:

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Apr 1 2026

President Trump Holds Oval Office Presser During Executive Order Signing – 5:00pm ET Livestream


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance 

President Trump will be holding an executive order signing event in the oval office today at 5:00pm.  The various livestream links are provided below:

UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED

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AP Livestream which will activate as soon as reporters are able to enter the Oval Office.

RSBN Livestream which contains ongoing commentary as they await the 5:00pm Event

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Forbes Breaking News livestream which will activate when the oval office camera stream goes live.

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Apr 1 2026

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s Husband Had Secret Life as Crossdresser Pretending to Have Large Breasts


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance

I’m not sure we even want to discuss this latest revelation that has been delivered to the Daily Mail by an illegal alien sex worker who is upset with former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.  [See non-Paywall Article Here]

The gist of the storyline is that former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s husband, Byron Noem, was secretly a crossdresser who liked pretending he was a woman with big breasts.  Noem then engaged in online activity with three women who specialize in ‘bimbofication’, apparently a process of using modifiable implants to make really big breasts.  As the story is told, this was Byron Noem’s fetish.

Mr. Noem was paying the women for their services.  One of the women was reportedly an illegal alien, and she gave the story to the Daily Mail along with pictures of Byron Noem as he wore hot pink spandex and pretended to have breasts.

The bizarre and sexually weird story has been corroborated by Kristi Noem. “Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” Noem’s representatives told The Post.

The Daily Mail called Trump to field his reaction … The President told the Daily Mail he was surprised to hear the Noem family confirmed the shocking report into his lewd online behavior. ‘They confirmed it? Wow, well, I feel badly for the family if that’s the case, that’s too bad,’ Trump said in a phone call. {SOURCE}

The political left had no problem with a cross-dressing HHS secretary, or other members of the Biden administration who were similarly predisposed to unusual sexual exhibitions, but suddenly the Democrats are grabbing their pearls and heading to the fainting couches.

Apr 1 2026

Lindsey Graham Wants Trump to Hurry and Wrap Up Iran War – Need to Avoid Exposing NATO Weakness


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance

Senator Lindsey Graham (U-DC) has never met a military combat operation he didn’t like.  In his career Graham, like his friend John McCain (RIH), has always supported war against every country.

However, beyond the unquenchable bloodlust there is one thing Senator Graham fears, an exit from NATO.  With the Iran conflict providing buckets of citations for why the United States should pull back from the NATO alliance, citations that Graham cannot easily refute, the war monger is worried the old war ethos of NATO could be lost.

[SOURCE]

“But, DAMNIT peace isn’t a prize!”…

“Don’t worry, we’ll get through this together.”…

Apr 1 2026

John Solomon and Donald Trump Jr Discuss Solomon’s Report of Ukraine Plan to Fund Biden Campaign Through USAID Scheme


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance 

To say this report has been widely shared on conservative media would be an understatement; but something just doesn’t sniff right.

[Tweet Below: Samantha Power in Ukraine, October 2, 2024]

The essence of the reports is that Ukraine officials discussed a scheme to receive money from USAID, essentially from the CIA, then launder the money through fake Ukraine ‘clean energy programs’ using various front groups, eventually culminating with the money being transferred to the Joe Biden reelection effort.  That’s the gist of the report.

However, as much as this story is of great interest to me, for reasons outlined below, there are multiple red flags which should indicate serious caution needs to be applied.

First red flag.  Every single report about the issue links back to the original John Solomon report, written mostly by Jerry Dunleavy. [SEE HERE].  There is no follow-up reporting from any other outlet or source on this exceptionally explosive claim.

Second red flag.  Despite the report centering around a “declassified intelligence intercept” under review by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, there is no citation for the interpretation of the information itself.  There is no visibility into a declassified report, which if genuinely declassified would be easy to share with readers.

The absence of citation for the core claim, while simultaneously stating the information has been declassified, is a significant flag.  This type of reporting relies on the reader accepting the interpretation of the author who chooses -without saying why- to keep it hidden.

Third red flag.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not commented on the declassified originating information, nor on the reporting or interpretation of it by Solomon.  This is not to say the reporting itself is inaccurate, but simply to note that no one is going on the record to substantiate it; and again, the information is hidden.

Fourth red flag.  If the core information was accurate, it would be attacked (spun and shaped) in a defensive posture by the leftist media who have direct contacts with allied intelligence officials who would know about it.  When an explosive IC claim is ignored by leftist media (NYT, WaPo, Politico, et al) generally that means they want to see the narrative advance or be emphasized.  This posture of advancement is generally made when information is being wrongly interpreted, and that plays positively toward their interests.

Fifth red flag.  The originator of the interpretation, in this case Solomon & Dunleavy, are careful in wording choices to leave as much deniability as possible for downstream discussion, questions and interpretations.  The infamous, ‘well we didn’t say that specifically’, when questioned later on.

This story is of great interest to me personally because in real time throughout 2024 I was tracking USAID Administrator Samantha Power, knowing full well she was an operative for the larger intelligence apparatus (CIA).

I wrote about Power’s real time travels to Georgia (Tbilisi), Slovenia, Moldova, Romania, Poland and Hungary, as she was setting up election interference operations in each of the countries.

What do Georgia, Moldova, Slovenia, Romania, Poland and Hungary have in common?  They were/are the site of very important election and/or referendum outcomes for the EU/U.S. State Department and EU/U.S. Intelligence Apparatus.

Controlling election outcomes was the entire reason Samantha Power was involved in those countries. USAID was funding the groups in each country that were in alignment with the Dept of State/EU/CIA outlook.

In support of what Solomon/Dunleavy have outlined, the possibility of corrupt Ukraine officials working with USAID to launder funds back to the 2024 U.S. election just makes buckets of Occam’s Razor sense.

Additionally, against the backdrop that multiple Ukraine energy sector officials have been charged with corruption, and the fact that the scheme outlined by Solomon involves the Ukraine energy sector – again, it just makes sense.

All of the elements for an outline of a Ukraine/USAID partnership toward shaping the U.S. presidential election outcome simply aligns with a lot of facts and circumstantial evidence that is very visible.  However, the red flags cannot be easily ignored.

Bottom Line: There is a lot of ancillary information and circumstantial evidence supporting what John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy have outlined.  However, if the information is indeed “declassified”, then why is it kept secret without explanation?   Therefore, the premise is tantalizing, perhaps exceptionally explosive, but proceed with caution.

Following the Ukraine Fraud Trail, Interview with John Solomon | Triggered Ep.329

Apr 1 2026

Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chief Chairman Caine Hold a Press Briefing


Posted originally on CTH on March 31, 2026 | Sundance 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine (prompted) hold a press briefing from the Pentagon. Secretary Hegseth reveals that he took a covert trip to the middle east last weekend. Media Questions begin at 35:20 of the video.

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