A single theory ties together the Iran war, the US–Canada trade fight, Latin America's rightward turn and the Gen Z protests — and it is bad news for banks, the dollar and anyone holding AI stocks.

• The claim: tech and AI companies are trying to take the power to create money away from the banks, and to do that they first need the dollar-based system to break.
• The Iran war is choking off Middle East oil, which starves the petrodollar loop that sends Saudi and Asian money back into US debt — raising the odds of a US debt crisis.
• An Anthropic listing at a $2 trillion valuation is seen as the trigger: if it flops, the AI bubble pops, Oracle and Broadcom get dragged in, and Washington bails the sector out by taking stakes in data centers.
• The payoff for the winners would be stablecoins and digital ID replacing the dollar, with private banks — overexposed to Gulf and Ukraine loans — left holding the losses.
• Canada is collateral damage: Trump is accused of backing Quebec and Alberta separatists, while Mark Carney is cast as the City of London's man.

Outlook: Three near-term tests — the Alberta referendum, the Israeli election and the US midterms — plus a Trump–Xi–Putin meeting in November that could produce a global AI governance board.