Posted originally on Jul 24, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Over 8,000 bank branches are expected to close worldwide in 2025. Approximately 3,200 of those closures will take place in the United States. Q1 experienced 148 net branch closures in the US, with all major banks slated to close branches throughout the year.
These are merely bank closures and not bank failures, although two smaller US banks did fail this year. People simply prefer online banking as we have made the switch from relational to transactional banking.
Bankrate conducted a survey that found 77% of Americans prefer online digital banking, yet other surveys believe the figure is closer to 89%. Digital banking has been rising in popularity in recent years, up from 203 million domestic users in 2022 to the 216.8 million projected users in 2025. The survey found that 34% of consumers use online banking on a daily basis, consistently checking their account and transactions. There has even been a 19% increase in use among the 65+ crowd who is least likely to use digital services.
The total number of bank branches across the US fell below 65,000 in Q2. Texas, New York, and California saw the largest decrease in brick-and-mortar locations. Many branches that chose to remain open are only offering drive thru services. One in three banks has closed in rural areas as there is no demand, and the Federal Reserve noted in its annual Banking Access Report that the number of “banking deserts” across the Midwest is rising.
Banks have no overhead with digital banking services and they do not need to hire staff. The cost-per-transaction for in-person banking is $4.00 compared to only $0.04 for digital. AI is rapidly replacing bank tellers with a 3 to 1 ratio.
The trend is global. The United Kingdom anticipates 370 to 450 branch closures this year. Germany and France are facing 1,100 closures combined. The Asia-Pacific region of the world saw a 16% reduction in bank branches from January to May 2025. Certain nations like Malaysia and Thailand also offer branchless micro-banking kiosks to substitute relational banking.
The money in your bank account is already just an electronic book entry. Not only is there less demand for face-to-face banking, but they are also preparing for CBDCs as bank branches are unnecessary without physical paper money. You can deposit a check on your phone or at a kiosk, but e-checks are rising in popularity. The only thing left for a branch is safe deposit boxes, and the government assumes you are hiding cash there anyway. Relationship banking is becoming a thing of the past, the latest casualty in the cycle of creative destruction.
Posted originally on CTH on July 23, 2025 | Sundance
Main Justice has announced the formation of a DOJ strike force to assemble and assess the evidence provided by Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, against former intelligence and government officials.
This will require the DOJ to take a new approach, extracting information from multiple silos and then overlaying context to the content therein.
That’s essentially the new approach that DNI Gabbard has taken to break down the silo defenses, and this is the first time since I’ve been outlining how they self-protect that someone (DNI) has actually done the extracting and cross-referencing.
Dept of Justice – WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a Strike Force to assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.
This Department takes alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with the utmost seriousness.
Upon the formation of the Strike Force, Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated:
“The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people. We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice.” (LINK)
Don’t underestimate how radical and challenging this type of an approach is going to be.
OIG Michael Horowitz never could attempt it (not authorized), SC John Durham was not permitted to do it (not authorized); the House Select Sub-Committee on Govt Weaponization ran away with hair on fire at even the suggestion of doing it (ask me how I know), and no modern internal investigative unit has ever been allowed to extract national security information from multiple IC institutions, and review it in context.
The DC intel silos are built so their lack of sharing creates a natural defense mechanism; there is no cross-reference capability. DNI Tulsi Gabbard has the unique ability -due to her position- of reaching into each IC silo regardless of their effort to stop her. That’s what has led to this point.
If the DOJ is successful, things could change; but that’s a very big ‘if’.
The entire mechanism of the USIC, led by defenses from the Senate Intel Committee (Cotton), will do everything to stop any internal extraction and review of their silo information. “National security” claims will run rampant. This will be a heavy lift requiring Executive Office support and coordination at every level.
If you want to understand how difficult this type of thing is, listen to this:
Posted originally on CTH on July 23, 2025 | Sundance
President Trump travels to Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium today to deliver remarks to an Artificial Intelligence summit and sign an executive order. The anticipated start time is 5:00pm with Livestream Links Below:
Posted originally on CTH on July 22, 2025 | Sundance
Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, responds to the deflection and denial of weaponized government and intelligence agencies by former President Barack Obama.
As noted in the comments by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, “Led by President Obama, there was an effort to create a document that would serve as a foundation for what would be a years-long coup against President Trump.”
🚨 BREAKING: Tulsi Gabbard CALLS OUT Barack Obama for attempting to DEFLECT blame for the Russiagate Hoax
She debunks Hussein's lies, line by line, calling it a "COUP"
Obama ORDERED his cronies to use ALREADY DEBUNKED "intelligence" to push the Russia narrative. That is a FACT!… pic.twitter.com/Pebss6LF5a
While it is unlikely any of the evidence currently in the record will lead to accountability upon President Obama himself, there is much easier legal exposure underneath him amid the underlings that carried out the operation.
Susan Rice is first and foremost at risk along with former White House Counsel Katheryn Ruemmler. Interestingly, Ruemmler became Susan Rice’s personal attorney after the Obama administration ended. Both Rice and Ruemmler are on record denying knowledge of the FBI investigation of President Trump.
According to the newly declassified and released documents, and according to congressional testimony by FBI Director James Comey on March 20, 2017, both Rice and Ruemmler lied about their knowledge.
Posted originally on CTH on July 22, 2025 | Sundance
Former President Barack Obama has released a statement following both DNI Tulsi Gabbard and President Trump outlining the Obama administration’s conspiracy operation to target Donald Trump in 2016 and beyond.
Obama’s office said in a statement, “Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.” (link)
Posted originally on CTH on July 22, 2025 | Sundance
Speaking about the information released last week by Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump concurs with the big picture overview that President Obama was involved and responsible for the targeting of him during the 2016 election and beyond. WATCH:
Beyond the targeting by the Obama administration, what President Trump says about the 2020 election is entirely accurate. One of the primary reasons CTH and those voices who are deep weeds researchers were targeted for removal by DHS using Big Tech, was entirely to stop the information about the rigged and fraudulent 2020 election.
Hundreds of key voices silenced, deplatformed, removed from visibility and forced to reorganize under different platform and systems. Thousands of patriotic Americans were black-listed and had their social media accounts removed during the operation.
DHS was directly involved with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google and many others during this unprecedented information control operation. I reemphasize this now, because CTH is going to be talking about this very soon in detail, because all indications are there’s another operation being planned for 2028. But that’s for another day.
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