Skip to content

Read More

No Plan B on birthright citizenship order: Read more in Alex Swoyer's 'Seen, Heard & Whispered'

TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement
Author profile
L. Todd Wood

L. Todd Wood

ltwood@123washingtontimes.com

L. Todd Wood, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, flew special operations helicopters supporting SEAL Team 6, Delta Force and others. After leaving the military, he pursued his other passion, finance, spending 18 years on Wall Street trading emerging market debt, and later, writing. The first of his many thrillers is "Currency." Todd is a contributor to Fox Business, Newsmax TV, Moscow Times, the New York Post, the National Review, Zero Hedge and others. For more information about L. Todd Wood, visit LToddWood.com.

Articles by L. Todd Wood

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a weapon at a front line in the eastern Ukrainian village of Krymske. Renewed clashes between the Ukrainian military and rebel forces have grown so intense during recent days that the leaders of France and Germany, who brokered a cease-fire in February, have called for a hastily arranged meeting Monday with Ukraine's pro-Western president. (Associated Press)

L. TODD WOOD: East Ukraine could be annexed soon

Much has been made in the media in recent weeks about the increased violence in East Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russia rebels of the Donetsk People's Republic, or DPR.

August 21, 2015
A newly mobilized Ukrainian soldier shows his skills during military drills in base Desna 100km north from Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 13, 2015. Fierce fighting surged in East Ukraine as Russian-backed separatists mounted a major and sustained new push Friday to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

L. TODD WOOD: Is East Ukraine about to blow?

It seems the mask of a cease fire has come off in East Ukraine. Ukrainian government forces report assaults across the front lines in recent days with the heaviest attacks on the territory around Mariupol, the key port city on the Sea of Azov.

August 12, 2015
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, right, speaks as Police Chief Charlie Beck listens at left at a news conference to discuss mid year crime statistics in Los Angeles Wednesday, July 8, 2015. Crime has increased 13 percent in Los Angeles in the first six months of the year, ending more than a decade of declines in the nation’s second-largest city, according to statistics released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday. Garcetti said “this is bad news” but that Los Angeles remains one of the safest large cities in the U.S. Beck partially attributed the crime spike to increases in homelessness, gang crime and domestic violence.(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

L. TODD WOOD: The madness of crowds

I was forced to watch CNN Monday morning while sitting in a professional's waiting room. The subject of discussion was the explosion in murders in New York and other cities in the last year.

August 3, 2015
FILE - In this May 9, 2014 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to speak at a navy parade marking Victory Day in Sevastopol, Crimea. Angry with the West's response over Ukraine, Russia is moving rapidly to bolster ties with North Korea in a diplomatic nose-thumbing that could complicate the U.S.-led effort to squeeze Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons program. Russia's proactive strategy in Asia- which also involves cozying up to China and had been dubbed "Putin's Pivot" - began years ago as Moscow's answer to Washington's much touted rebalancing of its military forces in the Pacific. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File) **FILE**

L. TODD WOOD: Russia unveils new naval doctrine, but can it afford it?

Sunday was Navy Day in Russia, celebrating the power and history of the Russian fleet. The Kremlin used the occasion to announce a new naval doctrine on its website which lays out an ambitious plan to modernize and reconstitute a blue water Russian naval force. Although it sounds powerful on paper, the real question with oil trending below $50 a barrel, is whether Russia can afford this agenda.

July 27, 2015
Oil-drilling rigs (AP Photo)

L. TODD WOOD: Collapsing oil could cause a war in Europe

The price of crude oil is plummeting again with West Texas Intermediate closing below $50 a barrel, possibly on its way to retest its recent lows of $42. For the commodity exporting BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), this is not good, especially not good for Russia.

July 23, 2015
Obama's Iranian Nuclear Negotiations Illustration by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

L. TODD WOOD: The Manchurian president, complicit Democrats destroy America’s national security

Democrat Barack Obama said in the second presidential debate in October of 2008: "We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. It would be a game-changer in the region. Not only would it threaten Israel, our strongest ally in the region and one of our strongest allies in the world, but it would also create a possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. And so it's unacceptable. And I will do everything that's required to prevent it. And we will never take military options off the table." It was a lie.

July 15, 2015
From left to right, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz pose for a group picture at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, July 14, 2015. After 18 days of intense and often fractious negotiation, world powers and Iran struck a landmark deal Tuesday to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions ó an agreement designed to avert the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and another U.S. military intervention in the Muslim world. (Carlos Barria, Pool Photo via AP)

L. TODD WOOD: Russia expects something from Iran deal, too

It seems Iran being allowed to develop and deploy a nuclear weapon was not the only development that will reduce American national security in the short run. Russia seems to have negotiated a sweetener as well with the American appeaser-in-chief.

July 14, 2015
People fish in a stream outside a steel factory in the Sea of Azov port city, Mariupol, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 10, 2015. The bulk of continued unrest along the 485-kilometer (300-mile) front lines, between Ukraine's government forces and Russia-backed rebels, has been concentrated around the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, but pitched battles are also taking place in the town of Shyrokyne, near the strategic port city of Mariupol. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

L. TODD WOOD: Is Russia backing down in East Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a master of the art of escalation and de-escalation. In the recent past, we have seen Moscow make nice statements and actually pull back from the conflict zone in East Ukraine, only to reappear in strength and apply significant deadly force to help pro-Russian separatists wrest territory and key logistical nodes from Ukrainian control.

July 9, 2015
Godzilla

L. TODD WOOD: Bondzilla: He’s tired of waiting

As the Federal Reserve winds down its printing-money-like-a-drunken-sailor program, otherwise known as quantitative easing (in most banana republics they still call it printing money), it seems like a good time to stare into the crystal ball and try and discern what is ahead for the U.S. bond market and the financial situation of the country as a whole.

July 5, 2015
A taxi driver loads luggage from a traveler into the back of his taxi. (AP Photo)

L. TODD WOOD: The taxi driver knows

Back during my Wall Street days, there was a saying, "If the taxi drivers are giving stock tips, you know the market is topping out." Taxi drivers know things. They have in-depth conversations with lots of people. They can feel the pulse of a nation.

July 2, 2015