CTH continues to get considerable questioning about how the U.S-Canada fracture will take place, what it means for the Canadian dollar (CAD) and when the issues can be expected to apex.  It appears that part of the reasoned disconnect people are struggling with is directly related to the messaging from the Canadian government in combination with the financial media.

In short, despite the increased trade friction, a decoupling of the U.S. economy from the Canadian economy just seems unfathomable to most observers. The main question we receive is ‘when will things happen‘?  Meaning when will financial markets react?  The most obvious answer to that question is, when the USA announces the termination of the USMCA (CUSMA) trilateral.

If you hold the opinion that all of these trade friction points will be resolved within the margins of the USMCA, then it is correct to predict that no significant material impact will be felt north of the border.  If, however, you hold the opinion that the USMCA will be terminated because the core of the issues between the two countries are irreconcilable, then the material impact will come as soon as that announcement is made.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the only Canadian government official to attend President Trump’s inauguration, appears on Fox Business. Like all other Canadian officials, she cannot contemplate the elimination of CUSMA/NAFTA.  Such an outcome is simply beyond her comprehension. WATCH:

In previous interviews and broadcasts, Mrs Smith claimed if Canada was to introduce an export tax the USA would respond accordingly.  This is not accurate.  The U.S. has no mechanism to place a tax on exports.

Additionally, inside Canada the structure is provincial.  That means each province taxes each other province for goods and services.  In the USA we have state sales taxes, but those taxes are applied across all goods sold to/inside an individual state.  Ex. Florida does not tax Texas.  Florida has one sales tax for all goods regardless of their origin.

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A very interesting outline as Promethean Action’s Mike Steger notes the current lack of USA street protests is directly connected to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tracking, tracing and targeting the dark money non-profits.

From Arabella Advisors and the Sixteen Thirty Fund to the Tides Foundation, Open Society Foundations, CAIR, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mike explains how donations can move through interconnected charities and political organizations without revealing the original donors. These networks, he argues, allow billionaire-backed operations to influence elections, protests, political movements, and American culture while retaining their tax-exempt status.

Mike then examines the Trump administration’s response, including Treasury’s Form 990 Transparency Initiative, investigations into nonprofit financial networks, and efforts to hold tax-exempt organizations accountable for where their money goes. He also considers how Bessent’s campaign against Iran’s financial infrastructure offers a model for dismantling domestic networks accused of financing political violence.

But this system did not begin with a recent election. Mike traces its legal foundation to 1913, when the Rockefeller Foundation received a permanent charter and the Revenue Act created broad tax exemptions for charitable, religious, scientific, and educational organizations. WATCH:

Chapters:

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This is a pretty good encapsulation of the relationship between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the DNC officials within the United States. Although Kokinda missed mentioning the meeting between Barack Obama and Mark Carney shortly before the G7 summit in France.

After Prime Minister Mark Carney abruptly pulled Canada out of U.S. trade talks and framed the dispute as a “war,” this episode argues the rupture isn’t really about tariffs but about political and financial strategy aimed at the U.S. midterm elections. Citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s account of negotiations and Canada’s unique retaliation, the script claims Carney is pursuing “geo-industrialization” and a “donut strategy” to go around the White House and influence American public opinion, aided by U.S.-connected advisers and outreach to mostly Democrats.

Kokinda also highlights comments from Iran’s foreign minister about U.S. debt and links the broader conflict to competing economic systems. The episode concludes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is fighting a parallel battle to manage risks from the yen carry trade using tools like FIMA to prevent destabilizing Treasury selloffs.

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In short, as Canadian conservatives suspected, Mark Carney lied about everything!

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer appeared on CNBC this morning to discuss the trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada and what caused the final breakdown at the last minute.  Greer notes the Canadian team appeared to be negotiating at the end from the position of politics as the Canadian team were aligning themselves with a domestic effort.

Greer draws attention to the friction points being very small. The U.S. tariffs were on less than 5% of overall Canadian exports and less than .06% of U.S. imports.  The U.S. made several offers to present Canada with the best trade terms in the world; however, Canada wanted more.  Canada wanted to retain all their market barriers, retain all quotas, retain all tariffs and restrictions against U.S. goods and services, but remove all the tariffs against them.

This is a really solid interview to watch because USTR Greer doesn’t need to pretend anything.  The terms offered were direct and consistent with benefit to both America and Canada.  On the language issue, Greer completely refutes the claims by Mark Carney about the U.S. seeking to change the language of Quebec and starts laughing at the premise. The issue relates to Canada demanding that five percent of all tech income be given to Canadian tech companies they compete against. That demand is ridiculous.  WATCH:

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Every time he has the opportunity, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reminds the world he views Canada as a part of Europe.  As the trade conflict between the USA and Canada deepens, Mark Carney looks toward Europe for a financial and security lifeline.

During remarks earlier today Commonwealth Prime Minister Carney noted his intention to join with Europe this fall for increased economic and national security.  This is an alignment the former Bank of England head has been operating since his installation. [X Link]

🇨🇦🇪🇺 I will condense my many tweets on the subject here:
– Europe’s financial and banking system is about to collapse due to insufficient collateral.
– The war in Ukraine was meant to collapse Russia and take its resources for the needed collateral.
– The war in Ukraine failed,…

— Northern Sceptic (@NSceptic11501) August 24, 2026

From my perspective this is Commonwealth banker Carney’s financial hedge against the looming USMCA termination.

Carney will be counting on U.K and EU financial support when the Canadian dollar declines quickly.  You might remember the Bank of Canada warning about this.

May 2026: – […] A cascading series of events could cause a sharp loss of investor confidence and lead to a spike in demand for liquidity or rapid asset sales. Funding markets could come under pressure, and stress could spread more broadly.

To be clear, the FSR is not about what we expect will happen. It is an assessment of how existing vulnerabilities—or pockets of stress—could amplify shocks and ultimately spread across the financial system.” (more)

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Secretary Bessent notes in his prepared remarks that President Trump has called the nations who are engaged with Iran to request them to cease and desist.  That means Trump likely called Chairman Xi (China), President Putin (Russia), President Erdogan (Turkey) and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.

The video and transcript of Secretary Bessent’s remarks are below. Media questions begin at 7:50 of video. WATCH:

[TRANSCRIPT] – Good afternoon.

Today, at President Trump’s direction, the United States Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast – an unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers.

In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries.

Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gets it.  When asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent notes that yes, things will likely never return to the way they were before; however, there is a distinction that must be applied.

Even if Iran completely acquiesced to all of the most stringent terms and conditions requested by President Trump, they will never again recapture the position they held with the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint.

Capital markets respond to risk in the medium and long term; risks are always mitigated.  With the Strait now identified as a strategic risk, the emphasis will be on forever neutralizing that risk and avoiding the issue in the future.  As a consequence, Iran’s strongest point of leverage is disappearing now and will continue to disappear.  WATCH (prompted):

As further explained by James Thorne on X: “By repeatedly signaling its willingness to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran hasn’t strengthened its hand, it has accelerated the market’s exit. Capital does not tolerate chokepoints; it routes around them.

Saudi Arabia is expanding its East-West pipeline. The UAE has already built out Fujairah as a bypass. Iraq is revisiting overland export corridors. Every marginal dollar now flows toward redundancy, not reliance. What was once a geopolitical lever is being engineered into irrelevance. Bessent gets it: markets don’t absorb coercion; they arbitrage it away.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent continues on two domestic financial approaches to block banking services for illegal aliens and simultaneously target use of the financial system by those engaged in fraud of the U.S. government.

Secretary Bessent has extended the Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) within Minnesota that covers two counties, Hennepin and Ramsey.

All financial transactions over a $3,000 limit are subject to increased reporting requirements and scrutiny from the U.S. treasury.  {citation}

The measure is intended to identify any person who attempts to transfer funds obtained by fraud who operate in the region to take advantage of HHS funding programs. “Treasury promised to follow the money, and that is exactly what we are doing,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “We will continue to give law enforcement critical tools to trace criminal networks that siphon taxpayer dollars and move them overseas.  The Trump Administration will not allow criminals to profit from programs intended to help vulnerable Americans.”

Additionally, the Treasury Department has now concluded the 90-day assessment laid out in an executive order titled “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System,” on May 19 and directed the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, National Credit Union Administration and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to strengthen customer identification and due-diligence rules and to reassess how banks weigh credit risk for borrowers without work authorization. 

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Promethean Action PAC puts together another video drawing attention to the connection between pressure on both Hezbollah (Lebanon) and Hamas (Gaza) that is forcing the terrorist networks within both conflict zones to suddenly discuss disarming and a pathway to peace.

Kokinda notes Secretary Bessent’s sanctions and money intercepts against all of the various Iranian financial systems are creating problems for the networks they support.  That is leading to unexpected pressure on the terror networks.

“From Camp David, President Trump framed a reported Hamas disarmament agreement as a breakthrough enabled by pressure on Iran, arguing the regional strategic terrain has shifted. The episode highlights two developments presented as unprecedented: Hamas agreeing to disarm and Israel and Lebanon resuming talks after three decades, both attributed to cutting off Iranian funding for proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Kokinda claims the decisive “weapon” was Treasury action under Secretary Scott Bessent—sanctions, OFAC tools, anti–money laundering measures—described as “economic fury,” including designating over 1,000 Iranian-linked individuals, ships, and companies and disrupting routes through shipping, insurance, and offshore finance. The script also points to the February 19, 2026 launch of the multinational “Board of Peace,” tasked with rebuilding Gaza, as a preplanned institutional blueprint that helped secure the Hamas agreement.”

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Comrade citizens, following the successful targeting and assassination of an insurance company executive, the newly installed Komisar of New York City has published the names and addresses of affluent New Yorkers for wealth targeting and taxation.  However, many of the activist citizens who advocated for Mamdani are not terribly pleased to find their personal information published by the new Democrat Socialist city leadership.

Affluent podcaster Scott Galloway, an advocate for the targeting approach, is flummoxed to discover his name, address and identifying information has been uploaded by the city to the ‘too wealthy’ target list. [First two minutes]

Fear not Comrade Galloway, all good citizens of the New York DSA will happily pay the necessary pied-à-terre tax. It even sounds collectively fabulous.  There is no reason to worry about being on a list of 950,000 wealthy citizens who have too much.  After all, sharing is caring.

NEW YORK – Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has published a searchable database of Big Apple properties that could fall under the state’s new pied-à-terre tax, effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.

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