A bleak read on the world economy: the financial order built after World War II is close to breaking, which would be bad for stocks, bad for anyone holding US assets, and bad for global stability.

• The dollar system rests on foreign money buying US government debt, and that flow is drying up.
• Japan is the crack to watch — its currency is falling hard, and the US Treasury has stepped in to prop it up for the first time in decades.
• If that money stops flowing in, the AI boom and the private lending boom both lose their support.
• Freezing Russia's money after the Ukraine invasion backfired: countries now buy gold instead of US debt, because they saw their savings could be seized.
• The war in Iran is draining America further, and Washington has no plan to end it.

Outlook: Expect more emergency currency props and market stress, with the Japanese yen the clearest early warning sign.