A former Air Force intelligence officer recently testified before Congress that we are not alone. The bombshell was offered up by Retired Major David Grusch, a whistleblower claiming that he knows the “exact locations” of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs, the military’s term for UFOs. Ret. Maj. Grusch was part of the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force which was established by the Defense Department in 2020.
The DoD established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs. The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPSs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.
Bi-Partisan Congressional Hearings on UAPs
Ret. Maj. Grusch’s recent claims seem to have stuck a cord in the minds of legislators such that they feel it is a good use of time and taxpayer money to hold high profile hearings on the matter.
Highlights from his testimony include:
- The U.S. government has operated a secret “multi-decade” crash retrieval and reverse engineering program of recovered vessels
- The recovery of partial fragments through and up to intact vehicles have been made for decades through the present day by the government, its allies and defense contractors
- Claims that the U.S. has likely been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s
- Non-human “biologics” have been recovered from alleged crash sites
Ret. Maj. Grusch has admitted that he hasn’t personally seen any alien vehicles or alien bodies, and that his opinions are based on the accounts of over 40 witnesses he interviewed over his four years in his role with the UAP Task Force. There are staunch defenders of his integrity by a number of ranking military officials among others.
The hearing also included testimony from a former Navy Fighter pilot and a retired Commander in the U.S. Navy. Each described encounters they had with UAPs in great detail. Both complained that government officials largely ignored their reports and only years later was one of the sightings followed up on but “nothing was done.” The former Navy Fighter pilot estimated that only about 5% of UAP sightings are reported to government officials. In addition, the Director of the Pentagon’s new All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office testified that they are tracking over 650 cases that remain unresolved.
The Pentagon released three enigmatic videos in April 2020 showing UAPs which the US Navy had verified as accurate. Below are three images from those videos. The photos date from 2004 to 2015 and are described as “metallic blimp,” “sphere,” and “acorn.”
Why Now?
Congress always wants more transparency from government agencies, especially ones that traffic in such fantastic intelligence. The notion of the existence of UAPs and aliens has lawmakers worried about potential threats to our military and civilian aircraft. They want to hear more about such sightings, not less.
What If Ret. Maj. Grusch and Others Are Correct? – Would Markets Care?
As I searched around for any commentaries that might connect the dots between verified UAP phenomenon and the stock market, I found that many have seriously considered such a thing happening. There is actually an Exchange Traded Fund with the stock symbol UFO that holds a variety of companies from around the world that get a majority of their revenue from space-related business activities and services. They cite UAPs in their regulatory filings as a potential investor risk.
“In Plain Sight” is a book written by an award-winning journalist that investigates UAPs. One of the biggest concerns among those in the know, he says, is the potential economic impact on markets if the scale of uncertainty surrounding UAPs in the military became known. He stated in an interview with the Financial Times: “Everyone talks about a potential for a massive collapse in the world economy if this revelation is not handled properly.” He feels it applies whether the technologies are human or non-human, since both scenarios would be highly disruptive.
The curiosity out there by those considering this scenario is growing. They refer to it as the concept of unknown unknowns and wonder what is the degree to which markets have thus far ignored such risks from the greatest unknown unknowns out there. The risks markets face is the increasingly fervent admissions by high-level security officials that while the phenomena are real, they remain unexplainable even to the most sophisticated militaries in the world.
Wrapping Up
We obviously construct portfolios in a way to manage known risks as we often discuss but admittingly we do not incorporate the risks related to the potential verification of the existence of UAPs. I find the recent Congressional hearings and testimony to be rather shocking but can’t ignore the fact that so many high-level, respected officials have such strong convictions that we aren’t alone.
A large part of our client base is in the aviation industry so I would be interested in any comments or “observations” folks may have on this topic. Congressional interest in UAPs will not likely fade away and more leaks of “defense department secrets” are sure to come in the future.
