On this significant anniversary, my 9/11 thoughts make the usual rounds, but they also take a different path to (and beyond) the tragic attack:

How is Osama bin Laden’s larger strategy to destroy the U.S. faring?

Taking down the World Trade Center towers wasn’t a strategy or an end unto itself. It was a tactic.

“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”

As stated in 2004, that was bin Laden’s goal. America’s internal collapse, economic failure, rot from within.

The Ties That Bond
Read the news for one day, and you can see the economic fissures creaking beneath the surface. Wages vs. profit. Income inequality. National debt. Secretary Bessent trying to pay a mortgage with another mortgage, attempting to force the bond market to buckle and bend the knee.

Maybe you already knew, but I learned last week that the bond market is larger than the stock market by, like, a few trillion dollars. As an apolitical financial advisor told me recently, “You don’t fight the bond market.”

… Unless you’re a heebie-jeebie-worthy hedge-fund henchman working for the best policy agent that OBL could have dreamed of in any elected office.

Two Prongs, One Prick
In the last 18 months, dual stories have dominated the U.S. economy: the price/affordability fallout from the kiss-the-ring-or-else tariff wars, and the Trump/Netanyahu war in Iran. Either maneuver would be a remarkable self-inflicted wound for our economy and our people. But both simultaneously? And entirely avoidable? bin Laden would not have dreamed up such a plot twist.

OBL thought he could bankrupt the U.S. through continued terror response and persistence (see: Afghanistan and the Soviets). bin Laden was wrong. Sure, COVID would take a good swing at us, but that was a global shock and was followed by a global recovery. The U.S. was recovering ahead of its Western peers.

It took the right man to undo that momentum with an idiotic one-two policy punch for the ages, begun the week he took office. On top of that, Trump has systematically ceded influence to our enemies around the world, withdrawn from areas of leadership and soft power, refused to stand up for those fighting for freedom, and continued to indulge his innate fondness for dictators.

Domestically, he has done more to undermine trust in our democratic system — and undermine the system itself — than any American in history.

Let’s not forget the BBBill. Take your pick of independent foundation estimates, and you’ll get anywhere from $3.4 to $5.1 trillion added to the national debt as a result of Trump’s tax cuts and other measures.

Blood & Oil
Meanwhile, the quagmire goes on. Maybe the real definition of a quagmire is a war that you “win” more than three or four times. In this case, it’s a folly that will sour any remaining moderates in Iran toward the U.S., planting the seeds for untold future fighters and future attacks.

Let’s wrap up with the wallet, because that’s the American way. U.S. oil prices may hit $100 before today is through. You don’t need me to tell you the repercussions for household budgets, for the cost of goods, for inflation and interest rates.

And for what?

If you’re an American, it’s real pain for absolutely nothing.

If you’re a bin Laden sympathizer, it’s real progress with the bonus of being absolutely free.