The Man Who Predicted The Iran War: The Next 9/11 Will Target Your Bank Account! | Professor Jiang

I know people dislike what I’m saying; I may be polarizing. But I’m trying to prepare people. History and supply chains gave me a framework for what may lie ahead, and it begins with a world I believe is coming apart.

That is a strong opening. When you say collapse, people may hear slower growth, a weaker dollar, or higher prices. You mean something far more severe, so I want the case before the horrifying predictions.

Start with the dollar system. After the Second World War, America supplied rebuilding countries with dollars to buy American goods, originally against gold. After Nixon ended convertibility in 1971, oil sold in dollars, China’s exports were priced in dollars, and Japan recycled savings into U.S. Treasury debt. A dollar is a contract.

Look at a semiconductor: America designs chips; Dutch and Japanese firms make machinery; Taiwan and Malaysia manufacture; China supplies inputs and assembles. A chip is the world working together. Technological advance is specialization multiplied by globalization, and trade needs the dollar system and uncontested American control of the seas.

So if war and nationalism undo trade’s conditions, countries become more self-reliant and less specialized, and technology stops advancing at the same rate.

Exactly. I think we have reached technological civilization’s high point. As supply chains fracture, states will build national chains and accept inferior technology. I’m not calling this merely a new global order or World War Three. Over twenty years, we may experience civilizational collapse.

The Late Bronze Age is the closest analogy: copper and tin came from different places, then climate shifts, hunger, migration, debt, inequality, and polarization created a cascade. Today I see expanding Middle East conflict involving Iran, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militias around vital maritime routes. The Houthis can pressure shipping and Saudi energy exports.

But the Middle East has seemed permanently violent through my life: al-Qaeda, ISIS, Iraq, Hezbollah, Hamas. Conflicts flared, changed shape, and life carried on. Why is this different from 2003?

These groups are more coordinated while decentralized, connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. China and Russia help Iran sustain itself. The petrodollar depends on Middle Eastern energy reaching Asian manufacturing, with dollars returning to American finance. If insurers find shipping too unpredictable to cover, trade can freeze without every route physically closing.

People my age have lived unusually sheltered lives. We read about Bronze Age cities vanishing within decades and think, surely that cannot be us. We lack a lived reference point for the breakdown our grandparents associated with world war.

That sheltered feeling is part of my argument. Iraqis, Afghans, and many others have not had our stability. I fear violence and chaos Western populations watched from a distance will reach us. Water scarcity, food dependence, migration, and aging societies worsen it: fertilizer disruption can bring hunger, while wealthy countries need workers for older people.

People say, use robots instead of immigration. But robots need copper, lithium, silicon, rare earths, and sprawling supply chains. Humans are cheaper than robots, grim as that is. Right-wing politics may restrict migration, yet aging countries still need labor, so domestic friction intensifies.

You do not call this certain; escalation is likely, but its path depends on choices we cannot know. Still, your scenario is brutal: disrupted trade, attacks on civilian infrastructure, hunger, and migration straining Europe.

Great powers can become trapped by their own logic. The more power they possess, the less imagination and empathy they may have. Leaders may feel unable to retreat if American military credibility anchors the system. That is why I worry about Iran, China and Japan over Taiwan and sea access, and Russia seeking instability in Europe.

You also made three deliberately wild predictions: Trump staying in power beyond 2028, an attack on American financial systems, and Lionel Messi becoming Argentina’s president. I pushed back on a third Trump term, and we made a friendly hundred-dollar bet: you say he will be in the White House on January 21, 2029.

I’m not saying I know a financial attack will happen. I’m saying someone seeking September 11th’s psychological effect might target data, not buildings. Imagine your phone payment fails, you cannot reach your bank, and nobody knows when savings will reappear. That uncertainty could produce extraordinary fear and rage.

My pessimism began with Brexit and Trump’s election. I came from a poor immigrant family; my father washed dishes for decades. Yale on scholarship made me believe hard work, reason, and merit governed the world. Those events shattered that story and sent me searching history rather than assuming innovation comes from universities.

America should have pushed Israel toward peace with Arab neighbors rather than regional dominance. I think it is too late to simply reverse what was unleashed. But do not despair: believe in God, stay close to family, and speak what you think is true. Faith creates responsibility to act in the world.

I asked why a good God permits pain and failure rather than giving us wisdom directly. I also asked about AI, beneath nearly every concern here: chips, energy, robotics, competition, and governments connecting cameras and data into constant monitoring.

If supply chains break, AI may become surveillance and autonomous warfare, not liberating intelligence. It can make human life cheaper, though we are here to love, imagine, and show kindness. My children give me hope. I’m not fearless, but I hold onto God, my family, and my purpose.

I hope you do. I met your curious, bright son briefly. Whatever listeners make of these predictions, family, faith, and purpose are where you leave us.