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 Jun 3, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The United Kingdom admitted it “lost control” over its own national security and permitted the invasion of thousands of illegal migrants. Once the naval powerhouse of the world, the former British Empire has “lost” the ability to protect its own shores from the onslaught of migrants that have been pouring in since its leaders adopted open border policies. Men with little to no resources in canoes are suddenly overpowering the long-admired British fleet. In truth, the government has not “lost control,” as this is a calculated effort to reshape the UK.
Others are blaming France for not preventing migrants from launching from their shores. French police stopped 38% of migrants (8,347 people) attempting to reach the UK by boat this year. French authorities prevented 45% of new arrivals in 2024, and 47% in 2023. France is receiving €541 million over a three-year period from the UK government to prevent illegal crossings in the English Channel. France has hired hundreds of new law enforcement officers to patrol the waters, but the number of asylum seekers continues to rise.
Upon taking office, Sir Keir Starmer announced that the Rwanda plan was “dead” as he would not deport migrants to third nations. Labour has stated they are seeking a “calm and patient rebuilding” of migration policies and refuse to accept any large-scale deportation efforts. If you can make it to shore, you can likely stay. Starmer has said the UK is becoming an “island of strangers” but refuses to adopt any policies to curb the inflow.
The United Kingdom is experiencing a mass repopulation event. The former population is being replaced with both legal and illegal immigrants. Birth rates are plummeting, public debt is rising, and the government is openly permitting migrants to enter to maintain its public welfare state. Rather than fixing the issues that are causing the population to contract, the government is importing a new population. The British political elite, both Tory and Labour, have failed to grasp the historical implications of these shifts. It is not racist or xenophobic to observe patterns and hard truths. The core identity of the UK and other Build Back Better nations has been abandoned and replaced. They are not bringing in migrants for humanitarian purposes, and it would be a lie to think that the UK was completely unable to secure its border. If they can’t prevent a few thousand men on cheap boats from entering, how could they protect themselves in time of war? The government is allowing this to happen because it needs new taxpayers to replace the workers it failed to produce.
This is why conservative leaders are attempting to rebuild domestic manufacturing and providing incentives for women to have children. The global mainstream media is controlled by the left, and therefore, these nationalist values are painted as a form of hatred or superiority. Quite the contrary, as conservative leaders are attempting to save their nation’s culture and traditions by encouraging the success of their own population.
Globalism is directly tied to repopulation theory. “In the future, countries with aging populations may need migration to sustain their economies,” Bill Gates said, as he strongly believes that the world is overcrowded. “The world today has 6.8 billion people… that’s headed up to about 9 billion. If we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”
Repopulation theory is more of a tactic than a theory. Hence, leaders like Starmer are ignoring warnings and standing idle as a demographic shift permanently alters their nation. As it stands, first-generation migrants will compose 25% of the UK’s population by 2035, according to the Centre for Migration Control, and the UK’s overall population will surge to 73 million. It may seem far off, but that is only a decade from now. All Build Back Better nations will be utterly unrecognizable thanks to repopulation tactics.
Posted originally on CTH on May 20, 2025 | Sundance
… And Director Gabbard may not know they exist.
If you have followed the construct of the Trump-Russia collusion story, you are likely outraged that accountability has not followed. There’s a very frustrating reason for that and I will explain how two distinctly different issues are being conflated. Separating them is the key.
The first issue is the FBI’s illegal surveillance of presidential candidates’, including candidate Donald Trump. The second issue is the Clinton campaign inspired Russia-Collusion story, that led to Crossfire Hurricane, colloquially known as “Russiagate.” All investigative emphasis, including John Durham, has been on the latter which takes you into a DC silo construct where all tentacles lead to dead ends and inaction.
Russiagate was a Clinton-inspired political smear campaign that was given the patina of credibility by the FBI opening the investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane.” If you focus on that storyline, you end up with zero accountability and endless talk that goes nowhere.
However, if President Trump and DNI Tulsi Gabbard reveal the first element, the FBI’s illegal surveillance of candidate Donald Trump, that path has a physical trail and documents that cannot be deflected by political obfuscation.
♦THE FBI SURVEILLANCE – The original agreement between Clinton and Obama going back to 2008 was for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid.
Obama would be President. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run.
John Podesta would enter the Obama administration as Hillary left (post Benghazi mess) in 2013. Podesta would look out for Hillary’s interests from his position inside the Obama White House. The Clintons and Obamas never fully trusted each other.
Barack Obama would put all the mechanisms into place that would transition his administration into Hillary Clintons’. That was always the plan running in the background.
In 2015 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had a check-in meeting; just touching base to firm up the goals and objectives as Hillary began her campaign launch. Podesta then left the White House to take up position inside the campaign, and Obama would maintain Clinton’s interests as planned without a monitor.
All of President Obama’s appointments in/after 2015, were essentially through the prism of assisting Hillary Clinton to win in 2016. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (tarmac meeting), Deputy AG Sally Yates, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Director James Comey were all part of that.
This is a key point missed by many. In the last two years of Obama, the cabinet and top-tier members of the administration would align their institutional interests to that of Hillary Clinton.
Technically Hillary had eyes and ears all over the White House at the time, and with Hillary Clinton being a foregone conclusion per the expectations of Washington DC, everyone would fall in line during the transition from Obama to Clinton.
Again, this was the general plan. Obama would show up in 2016 to campaign for Hillary and all would be seamless.
The FBI was aware of the plan for transition from Obama to Clinton. Hence, the FBI role in eliminating the threat later presented by the Hillary Clinton laptop scandal, private servers and the subsequent issues of her receiving and transmitting classified information.
Remember, Clinton’s motive as Secretary of State was to sell her position for material wealth. That’s why she used a personal email, maintained her own servers, and generally controlled how her activity could be monitored and tracked. [Also, she didn’t fully trust Obama]
The FBI activity was to support, defend and facilitate the Clinton effort. This is again a key to understanding “Russiagate.”
After March 2016 (Super Tuesday) it became obvious Donald Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. Trump would be Clinton’s opponent.
♦The surveillance – Using access to the NSA database, the U.S. Govt., specifically “FBI Contractors”, began doing political surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign. This intel was then sent to the Clinton team. Clinton would benefit from knowing the communication inside the Trump campaign. All of that intel was in the metadata captured by the NSA and searched by the FBI contractors.
All of this activity was political surveillance, using govt resources to feed the Clinton team the info.
♦”RUSSIAGATE” – When the Clinton campaign launched the Russia Collusion dirty trick move against her opponent Donald Trump, originally using Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson, the role of the Obama administration was to facilitate the political hit, and at the very least not impede it. Hence, former CIA Director John Brennan briefing Barack Obama on the status of the Russia collusion hoax as it spread in 2016 via the Clinton campaign.
However, as a result of the circle of information, Obama had a problem. The sourcing of the intel could trace to the illegal FBI surveillance of the NSA database. That’s why they needed a plausible shift within the surveillance. That’s where the Carter Page FISA comes in.
Specifically because President Obama was, by extension, now a participant in the Clinton created “Russia Collusion hoax,” and specifically because his administration officials were participants in the process (DOJ, FBI), when President Trump won the 2016 election President Barack Obama was now exposed by the threat the operation represented. This context is the impetus for the January 5, 2017, meeting and subsequent Susan Rice memo.
Following the surprising result in the 2016 election, the team around Obama was constructing plausible deniability.
President Obama did not orchestrate the Russia Collusion hoax; he facilitated it by not interfering with his administration officials who were assisting Hillary Clinton. This is a key distinction.
President Obama knew what was going on and he was willfully blind as it was carried out. However, the mess and fallout from the effort his FBI and DOJ officials put into assisting Hillary Clinton eventually represented a threat to President Obama.
With an assist from pressuring allies in the legislative branch, Robert Mueller and all 19 of his Clinton-aligned Lawfare operatives were put into place to cover-up the mess created within the Russia Collusion operation. Mueller +19 Lawfare embeds continued the Crossfire Hurricane operation, while the extreme Lawfare strategy was deployed against the Trump administration.
That’s the short, encapsulated version.
The Russia Collusion hoax was created by Hillary Clinton, spread to media through Fusion GPS and given the patina of credibility by the DOJ and FBI. President Obama facilitated the operation by not interfering in it, until it became a threat to him personally.
Both the Obama and Clinton political teams supported and organized the Robert Mueller cover-up. All of this activity is because Hillary Clinton was supposed to win.
♦ Awakening the public. Among the information President Donald Trump has requested for declassification, there are two important document sets being overlooked.
#1 is the 2017 99-page opinion of FISA Court presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer covering 2016 FBI Contractor abuse of the NSA database. Tulsi Gabbard needs to get the unredacted version, read it and declassify it. [Yes, revealing the names of the actual FBI contractors]
#2 are the NSA “audit logs” which were preserved by NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers, as outlined in his testimony. Where does NSA store their audit logs?
Both document trails outline the FBI conducting political surveillance of the 2016 Republican Presidental nominee, Donald Trump.
This is the originating data that follows a parallel path in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Both paths, (1) the FBI illegal political surveillance, and (2) the Clinton campaign Russia Collusion/Crossfire Hurricane investigation, intersect at the Carter Page FISA warrant, and merge together. However,it is important to see them as two distinctly different paths.
The illegal surveillance path was made legal retroactively by the FISA Warrant against Carter Page.
Investigating ‘Russiagate‘, as dirty and unseemly as it was, takes you to a place where politics infected the DOJ/FBI and every participant carries plausible deniability. However, investigate the 2016 illegal surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign via the NSA database and all of that activity cannot be justified.
Focus on the FBI surveillance of the GOP in 2016, by focusing on how they exploited the NSA database.
As to the Audit Logs preserved by Director Rogers, there are two strong likelihoods:
#1) I suspect one of the workstations involved in the database searches will be identified as an FBI workstation in the DC Law Office of Perkins Coie.
#2) I suspect one of the workstations involved in the database searches will be located in the office of Samantha Power at the State Department; with a user id login designated to Power (but she may not have physically logged in).
Both #1 and #2 above are directly connected to Hillary Clinton. #1 was her campaign law firm, and #2 was her former office.
Bottom line. The FBI was conducting illegal political surveillance and funneling the results to the Clinton campaign. There is a document trail directly to this activity, and audit logs showing exactly who was doing it.
Posted originally on CTH on April 8, 2025 | Sundance
After previously saying her number one concern about President Trump’s tariff program was Beijing dumping all their excess products into the EU at a discount, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces she is coordinating the tariff response with China.
Apparently, the EU recognizes the ideological alignment of support from Canada just isn’t going to be enough to pressure President Trump and retain leverage into the U.S. market. This is quite a remarkable admission from von der Leyen all things considered. [STATEMENT]
President von der Leyen held today a phone call with Premier Li Qiang to discuss the state of EU-China relations, as 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties.
The two leaders held a constructive discussion during which they took stock of bilateral and global issues.
The President underscored the vital importance of stability and predictability for the global economy. In response to the widespread disruption caused by the US tariffs, President von der Leyen stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of world’s largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field.
The President called for a negotiated resolution to the current situation, emphasising the need to avoid further escalation.
President von der Leyen emphasised China’s critical role in addressing possible trade diversion caused by tariffs, especially in sectors already affected by global overcapacity.The leaders discussed setting up a mechanism for tracking possible trade diversion and ensuring any developments are duly addressed. (more)
In the 2017 – 2019 version of the same dynamic, the EU was slow to realize the Trump impact to the Chinese economy would lead to less industrial purchases from Beijing. This dynamic pushed the EU toward recession. In 2025 von der Leyen is trying to proactively mitigate that outcome.
This coordination of response between Brussels and Beijing is happening simultaneous to the Chinese central bank beginning a rapid devaluation of their currency. Direct subsidies and currency manipulation are the first two approaches taken by any economy dependent on access to the U.S. market.
The difference this time is the scale of the tariffs President Trump is delivering. There’s no way to subsidize and lower currency value at a rate significant enough to mitigate a near 50% tariff impact across all sectors. China and the EU will subsidize and devalue, but they cannot repeat their prior defensive programs to this scale.
The key takeaway from this public admission by the EU President is to note how consequential the tariffs are to their parasitic endeavors.
The EU is directly working with Beijing against American interests.
Posted originally on Jan 21, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
PayPal has finally admitted that it DEBANKED people because of their views on COVID-19. Let me state clearly: PayPal did that to us, and I had to get lawyers involved to even get our money back. They claim to have these policies, and my real question has been who is directing these policies, and are they taking money for them? We no longer take PayPal, for they will debunk you for political reasons.
PayPal debanked Molly Kingsley, the founder of the parent campaign group UsForThem, that her account had been terminated in September 2022 owing to “the nature of its activities.” Now, PayPal has admitted that her account was frozen for the first time due to “content published by UsForThem relating to mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations andschool closures”.
The firm said that since UsForThem received donations via PayPal, this contravened its “acceptable use” policy.
When I do interviews, I cannot even use the word “vaccine,” or the post is removed, especially from YouTube. There should be an investigation to see if there is a coordinated effort by someone directing this censorship, for it only profited companies like Pfizer. Where I would at least take a flu shot, I would no longer take any vaccine, for they are all now being crafted with MRNA. Pfizer should be criminally investigated.
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America