Watch till the end.

Many reasons...

Epstein

Israel influence

Sell oil at higher prices

...israel is probably main reason though

Can't have an enemy of the state and their citizens pushing for democracy.
Better bomb them before they get anymore ideas.

I was on a work-related Moody's credit rating agency call today and something stuck out to me as i was listening. Speakers highlighted that the largest US banks in 1Q26 posted some of the strongest earnings growth driven by capital markets activities. The driver of that? Higher markets volatility.

I don't want sound cynical but there is truth that wars are highly profitable and there is incentive for many involved.

i still remember in the 2016 GOP primary debates Trump was on stage talking about a market bubble, and how it needed to be dealt with to avoid a depression. at that time it was already arguably a "good" time for the cyclical recession which staves off depression. then when he got elected it was NASDAQ and DOW headlines on the whitehouse twitter and he loved for it got inflated. not entirely his fault, vague promises of deregulation and tax incentives made the market sky rocket in year one of trump 1.0, he couldnt have deflated it if he tried. fast forward and her personally threatens the Fed if a rumor of rate increases comes out. dude is 100% addicted to market indicators as if they're approval ratings.

Look at BP, doubling profit from their trading division. "Exceptional oil trading results". Of course volatility driven.

No opportunity wasted.

This post was edited by SBD on May 5 2026 11:39am

The follow up question in all of this is, was it by design then?

Many of us assume it was arrogance and a mistake and huge miscalculation on Iran's response. What if the inverse is true, what if we knew this how they respond and it forces several things, not going to exhaustive but some things off the top of my head


-Oil prices significantly higher (huge boon to US producers, especially to red states like Texas)
-Fracturing of OPEC and their ability to dictate oil supply/demand dynamics (we see this with UAE leaving)
-Reversing de-dollarization (evident by the Gulf countries all wanting dollar swap lines)
-More dependency of Europe and East Asia on the US (you can't get your oil/gas from ME so i guess you have to turn to us)

Oh and the very obvious insider trading. Somone keeps placing massive bets right before Trump announces something that moves the market and at this point has probably netted into the hundreds of millions if not billions in trades.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on May 5 2026 11:56am

We are on the wrong side of the wealth gap to answer that question.

if i was getting into a tinfoil hat space and thinking that way i'd go WAY beyond that.

what's the only way that the USA can conceivably get out of it's massive debt crisis long term? well there are 2 conceivable methods, either cut spending massively and delegate enough tax base profits for bond buybacks while holding a balanced budget long enough OR global economic depression where nations we're in debt to will take super advantageous to the USA deals in cash, goods, etc to offset the debt. we could do both at the same time during a global depression, no better way to balance the budget and cut expenses than a literal crisis which all but bankrupts the country in a single year if they dont cut.

that said i dont see the foresight to think that's the case, nor do i think Trump has the stomach to cut entitlements to any meaningful degree. skim social security for military budget? sure. but cut out massive programs? nah. the debt will still be there in 2028, and be even larger. soon we'll go over 30% of our budget being just interest payments.

When shit hits the fan....I can almost say for sure you will do a Ukraine on Taiwan.

It is always the same shit...every time the US have some sort of internal economical crisis...if you can't handle it...war it is as a distraction and to remind your homeless boys how proud they are to be American because you can GG everyone in the world even if they are dying of overdose on the streets.
The scary thing is....if the Chinese don't buy that shit .... and go direct with you... that is pretty much it.

Both of you throw a couple of nukes at one another and suddenly everyone realized how ruinous it will be and ceasefire for a prolonged cold peace.
Which is going to be shit.

This is a recent article by one of your military boys.

https://www.twz.com/sea/china-is-americas-military-equal-now-and-in-any-future-fight-marine-general-warns

So who will win ?

China can sacrifice up to 500 to 600 Million Civilians either directly from enemy fire or death from the after effects of Nuclear fallout.
How much Civilians can US sacrifice.

If some idiot is going to come in and say the war with be fought with only military against military personnel in a somewhat traditional warfare...they must be stupid.
CCP aren't going to play that game. They will invite America to hit Chinese cities with a couple of Nukes first. And they will return the favor.

Furthermore.....1.3 to 1.4 Billion in Population, if the US shave off up to 500 Million of Chinese.....Less Mouths to Feed. from the Chinese end.
Even your staunches allies will go ...fxxk... The current Population in EU is only around 750 Million.

The winners in the end might switch to Russia and India. And the Indians are going to migrate all over



This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on May 5 2026 01:29pm