People are really going out of their way not to see the demand destruction phenomenon for what it is. My experience is that older people think the economy is doing great because they all had explosions in their asset values over recent years. The youth on the other hand complain about being broke and finding it difficult to keep up with basic living costs. There is a total breakdown in communication between these two groups.

Over the course of the past 3-4 years, I saw a steady escalation of military activity in my area. Choppers, planes, convoys, all of it. Often I would observe training exercises and the like. The whole thing gave me a sense of foreboding. In hindsight, it seems very obvious that foreign military adventures have been planned for some time.

I am not sure why Iran was picked as the first domino to fall, or why they chose to do this now, but it seems like we reached some kind of red line for the Empire and they felt it was do or die.

I think about this often. Here in the USA there are countless concrete structures that are coming near to the end of their lives. This includes many residential dwellings. I expect to see a lot more bridge collapses, building failures, etc in the not too distant future - say, the next 1-2 decades.

Yes - I had to work during Uni and it was hellish. By the end, I came very close to burnout (but not failure, although I did have to cut corners at times to keep my head above water).