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State of the (Business) Nation
Here’s a useful snapshot of the current business climate
Stuart Morrison and Rob Fryer12 Comments-
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@robfryer-brandstorm ye sorry . This is the summary from the Business Intellignece panel I sit on. Not much to celebrate right now – but of course chaos creates opportunities …somewhere…
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Perfect. All of the assets will be on sale… Time to invest! Practical steps.
Get investments out of the US – as the US print fiat currency, prop up the dollar and manipulate precious metals they cannot dodge the fundamentals. Interest rate cuts won’t stop the explosion of inflation in the US as the economy fluctuates wildly and people become wary of the global reserve currency. Japan bonds will continue to be an issue for the US.
However all of this is an amuse bouche to the real black swan, which is likely not going to be earth based, look to the sky. The Kessler Effect or Kessler Syndrome is what should be keeping everyone awake. Satellite orbits decay, and they have to tweak them to keep them in place. Debris is also tracked, as a wing nut travelling at 3 kilometers per second is basically a supersonic bullet waiting to hit something. A single 1 mm fragment hits at 17,000 mph (71 J of energy), which can cause catastrophic damage to any orbital hardware, and there are millions of these teeny tiny pieces that cannot be tracked.
The more crowded it gets up there, (thanks Elon) the more risk of a domino effect from a single collision. The film Gravity shows what can happen in graphic detail. That could knock out various comms, military and otherwise, as well as weather, travel and other vital infrastucture. Expect disruptions everywhere and in every field as the knock-on effects of earth-bound processes reliant on that uplink data.
Experts have stated that at certain altitudes (520 km to 1,000 km), the environment is already “unstable” and at a critical threshold. The “CRASH” Clock: A 2025, non-peer-reviewed study, identified that the “Collision Realization and Significant Harm” (CRASH) clock is at just 5.5 days, meaning if navigation/maneuvering capabilities are lost, the risk of a new, major collision is imminent. That was recently suggested to be wrong and it was more likely 2 days.
On the 29th of Jan 2026 SpaceX launched the 11000th Starlink satellite and approval to launch another 7,500 next-gen Starlink satellites (4400 of which ar ebeing deorbited by 70Km to avoid debris). However that’s just ONE company… There’s lots more planned from other orgs.
All you need is to add a magnetic storm, caused by a solar flare and then we’re into unknown territory…
Whatever the economy is doing, there’s a sword of damacles over our heads, and if that cascade event happens, oof…
Good luck sleeping tonight…
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Well at least that puts short term economic concerns into perspective. ! How are you sleeping @Stu with all that in your head?!
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@signal-emma All about perspective right!!! Hows that fallout bunker coming along @stu and is there room for 3 more!!😂
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@robfryer-brandstorm I’d not build a bunker, I’d run toward the blast.
Fun fact… and if you like sleeping at night, read no further…
When I worked at the RAE, the airport was always considered a “first strike” target. A tactical strike, of low threshold, high radiation particles is not a good option for most scenarios as it means the land is going to be a wasteland for hundreds/thousands of years. Thus rendering any geo-political gains worthless, other than to neutralise a particular threat. Iodine tablets are a good hedge against a more tactical drop, detonating in the atmosphere and showering a wider area with radiation. Run towards the blast. Death by radiation poising is not fun. Ground detonation? Forget it. I’d still run towards the blast, or wait, the shock will hit a few seconds after you see the bright light, which, if you’re closer enough, may blind you so you won’t see it coming. If you did survive surving with the remainder of whatever humanity was left, it would be a living hell. Think Zombie plagues, vigilanties, overt, authoritarian governmental control (bit like now, without iPhones), and think of the queues in Lidl, price of a loaf of bread would be hundreds… Then you die of radiation poisoning. It would just get you over a longer time frame. Stuart’s PSA – Hear Big Bang? Go quick. Go early.
Welcome to my brain age thirteen… I obsessed over nuclear anihilation.
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@signal-emma – Being the age I am means nothing surprises me anymore. I fully expect to wake one day and find the UK has been sold to China, and we’re now under the control of some offshore agency. or aliens have got in touch. They came, took a look, and suggested we needed to “sort your earthing shit out”.
Or it’s a all a simulation, or we live on a black hole… Choose your conspiracy :-{)
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@stu I think Im in the simulator camp
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I guess If nuclear annihilation were genuinely on the table, none of this would matter anyway.
The fact that it does matter means we’re still in a world where:
– Progress is possible
– Businesses can adapt
– And fixing these things still makes sense
The fact we’re not yet preparing for nuclear fallout and grabbing the kids and heading north is oddly reassuring?
Now excuse me while I go complain about the price of milk again. -
Reminded myself of what a K-Shaped recovery is. Now thinking of its ramifications.
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@john-ryland what are they?!
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@georgepilkington you might like this thread
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