In this Aug. 13 episode of Money & Markets, the hosts frame the week’s news as “hegemon cracking,” citing Trump’s openness to declaring a national emergency to impose voting changes, ongoing Iran tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, and Pentagon pressure to accelerate weapons production amid depleted munitions. They discuss how the U.S.–Iran war has shifted Asia’s oil and LNG sourcing, with the U.S. and Russia benefiting while key U.S. allies lose, and describe Japan considering Palantir/Anduril systems that deepen military integration with the U.S. They cover U.S. euro sales to support the yen, foreign Treasury holdings versus the Fed’s $4.5T, Greenland drilling tied to Trump-linked interests, Venezuela oil revenues held by the U.S. Treasury, a new Colombia president aligned with Trump, labor’s record-low share of GDP, EU use of interest from frozen Russian assets, EU cash-payment limits, a major cold-wallet Bitcoin theft mechanism, and pushback including a New Mexico Meta judgment and a lawsuit for unredacted Epstein files, while warning the bond market near 5% yields is the weak link.