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Links 4/4/2025

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Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon Phys.org

Founder Klaus Schwab to step down as World Economic Forum’s chair Reuters

Climate/Environment

Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer The Guardian

OCC ends climate risk guidance for large banks ESG Dive

Global warming of more than 3°C this century may wipe 40% off the world’s economy, new analysis reveals Green Central Banking

As EPA pulls back, schoolchildren could face the steepest risks Floodlight

Pandemics

Media Reports Of Fatal H5N1 Case in Child In Andhra Pradesh, India Avian Flu Diary

NIH Director Bhattacharya’s “Culture of Dissent” Pandemic Accountability Project

The Koreas

Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, removes him from office Yonhap

China?

US bans government personnel in China from romantic or sexual relations with Chinese citizens AP

US regains edge over China as preferred partner in Southeast Asia: Survey Channel News Asia

Chartbook 368 “I have only committed the mistake of believing in you, the Americans.” The day after Trump’s “Liberation Day” in SE Asia. Adam Tooze, Chartbook

Interview: Possible US-China War with Garland Nixon & Dr. David Oualaalou The New Atlas (video)

Fitch cuts China credit rating on debt risks amid trade tensions Reuters

Syraqistan

One month into deadly Israeli-imposed blockade, critical medicines in Gaza start to run out Medecins Sans Frontieres

Gaza faces ‘largest orphan crisis’ in modern history, report says Al Jazeera

The Zionist movement is a global threat, not restricted to Israel – with David Miller Vanessa Beeley (Audio)

***

Iran could agree to direct talks with U.S. if progress in indirect mediation Diplomatic, by Laura Rozen

European Disunion

Germany adopts ‘illegal’ Trump-style deportation of pro-Palestine activists The New Arab

Le Pen ruling: lawfare European style Thomas Fazi

New Not-So-Cold War

US-Russian Negotiations on Ukraine Hit Brick Wall, Russia Soldiers On, Trump’s Tariff War on the World & End of Free Trade/Globalization The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (video)

Europeans look to Nato assets for Ukraine peace force FT

General Cavoli’s Schizophrenia on Ukraine Larry Johnson, Son of the New American Revolution

Postwar Ukraine and the West Germany Model The National Interest

Russia’s Replacing Military Equipment at “Unprecedented Pace” Lt Col Daniel Davis, Deep Dive (video)

Very Important Report by General Director of the Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina to Putin karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium

Mr. Market Has A Sad

Trump says things are ‘going very well’ after worst stock market drop in years over tariffs AP

Oil tanks 6% amid ‘panic selling’ as Trump tariffs, OPEC+ supply increases send prices reeling yahoo! Finance

Stephen Colbert Begs ‘Deep State’ to Save Us From Trump Stock Market Crash Daily Beast

“Liberation Day”

Did an LLM help write Trump’s trade plan? Marcus on AI

***

Trump open to tariff negotiations, contradicting White House aides CNBC

“Let’s Not be Laughed at Anymore: Donald Trump and Japan from the 1980s to the Present” Journal of American-East Asian Relations. From 2018, still germane.

“Shock therapy on a civilizational scale”:

What’s wrong with tariffs Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic

Trump 2.0

National Security Council staffers fired in wake of Trump meeting with Laura Loomer The Hill

DOGE

US vice president denies Musk set to leave government, says his work ‘not even close to done’ Anadolu Agency

The New Legislators of Silicon Valley The Ideas Letter.

A city responding to a lead crisis in schools reached out to the CDC for help. The agency’s lead experts were just fired CNN

Democrats en Déshabillé

Former New York governor advised OKX over $505M federal probe: Report Coin Telegraph. Cuomo.

Cuomo’s Covid misrule killed my parents Unherd

SignalGate

Watchdog to investigate Hegseth’s sharing of airstrike info on Signal Defense News

Police State Watch

Tesla “Terrorism” Intel Reports Stoke Contagion Ken Klippenstein

Healthcare?

Did Trump tank the FTC’s insulin suit? Observers in Ohio, elsewhere want to know Ohio Capital Journal

The Johnson & Johnson cancer drug scandal that encapsulates corruption in health care STAT

Overdose deaths are falling nationwide. Why? Matter

AI

Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers From Chicago to Jakarta Bloomberg

DeepMind has detailed all the ways AGI could wreck the world Ars Technica

Groves of Academe

The Fascism Expert at Yale Who’s Fleeing America Vanity Fair

Antitrust

Report: Justice Department Will Not Block Capital One Acquisition of Discover PYMNTS

Inside the secret fees grabbing millions a month from our MTA fares New York Post

Screening Room

Marvel’s Military Industrial Complex Inkstick

Class Warfare

Big win, big loss for workers in court People’s World

Cities lead bans on algorithmic rent hikes as states lag behind Washington State Standard

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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173 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”

    Is it too late to knock it back on course?

      1. BlueMoose

        Unfortunately, we won’t be so lucky. We are just going to grind it out. Overshoot is a beast.

      1. Bugs

        That’s funny but also interesting, because an asteroid that big will definitely affect the moon’s orbit. Not enough to send it crashing into earth, obviously, but the scientific measurements would be extremely useful for understanding how these celestial bodies maintain position. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything that big hit the moon in recorded history.

        1. Jokerstein

          – I heard of one planet up in the seventh dimension, got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole, killed ten billion people.

          – Madness, total madness!

          – Only scored 30 points, too.

        2. Laura in So Cal

          This is the premise of a Young Adult Dystopian novel called “Life as we knew It” that I read a few years ago. It caused me hoard canned goods for a couple of years after I read it.

    4. Paradan

      So it hits in 8 years, which is about 2/3 of Jupiter’s orbital period. It’ll probably get rerouted a bit more. Be cool if it grazed the near side of the moon and we ended up with the moon having a ring for 20/100/1000(?) years. Probably get a cool meteor sower too.

  2. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Conor.

    I’m glad that you have linked the indefatigable David Miller.

    The lobby organised a take down of the academic at / from Bristol university. One of their proxies was Green MP Caroline Lucas.

    Soon after, it turned out that the lobby has infiltrated the greens. The lobby does not take chances and has all bases covered.

    Miller still has debts from the legal action to clear his name, but he carries on the good fight and has exposed how even the civil service has been captured.

  3. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Conor for the beautiful photo.

    Is that an ibex in front of Mont-Blanc and the Bossons glacier near Chamonix (or Chamouny in Savoyard)?

    I’m hoping to return in mid-September. I first went fifty years ago and last a decade ago and have noted how the glacier has receded.

    1. The Rev Kev

      After seeing that image I had a sudden urge to have one of those for my own roof, even if not real.

  4. .Tom

    I was wondering what the Falkland Islands had done to get on Trump’s naught list. Perhaps not much. They happen to have a country code top-level domain.

    Yesterday as I was trying to understand Stephen Miran’s “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System”, said to have influenced this Trump trade “policy”, I was imagining political staffers at about the competence level we saw in the Yemen bombs Signal chats hastily trying to make specifics from it. Yes, of course they got chat bots to do it.

  5. eg

    Canada as “the Ukraine of North America”? I mean, there’s damning with faint praise, but this is just … 🤢

    (though there ARE lots of unreconstructed Ukrainian nationalists up here)

    1. Wukchumni

      Siberia of Gulag Hockeypelago has it’s benefits, ever since the NHL began, they’ve been harvesting goon material out of permafrost adjacent to the Great Slave Lake, perhaps the most disparaging named body of water in the world.

      It takes about a week for said enforcers to be reanimated and then a few days on skates, the hardest part for them is getting used to modern clothing with its zippers and buttons, not to mention bootlaces.

      Before helmets became mandatory, you could make out their Neanderthal features quite easily, sloped forehead and a smaller brain than is now the custom, and easy to anger.

      1. Divadab

        Neanderthal had bigger brains. It’s been going downhill since we started interbreeding with the latest to come out of africa.

        My pet theory is that the indo-European languages were once a pan-Neanderthal language. Check out a map of the Neanderthal range and overlay the range of indo- European languages- they are almost perfectly congruent.

    3. pjay

      Stanley will fit right in up there with the Diaspora (the Ukrainian Diaspora that is), as will his “best friends” Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore (Snyder’s wife).

      It seems like I’ve seen this piece plastered all over the place in the last day or two. So typical – my mood vacillates between rage and weariness whenever I read such articles. Of course I agree with his condemnation of Trump’s MIGA/MAGA war on universities; it is indeed a very dangerous development. But the one-sided obliviousness to the contribution of his own kind to our present condition is always stunning. This is a guy who has written books titled ‘How Propaganda Works,’ ‘How Fascism Works,’ and ‘Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.’ Like his buddy Snyder, he knows of what he speaks:

      https://kyivindependent.com/q-a-with-jason-stanley-fighting-fascism-colonialism-in-russias-war/

      I’d be making more sarcastic comments about “Yale’s loss” if I didn’t agree on the dangers of the current right-wing onslaught.

    4. Michael Fiorillo

      He can hang with that Waffen SS guy who got the standing o from Parliament. They can talk about how much worse the Soviet Union was than Nazi Germany, and congratulate each other on their moral clarity.

      As I think Lambert oft mentioned, Trump has been painfully fortunate in his political opponents; the lack of self-awareness among the #McResistance – though I guess that’s the wrong term for this character, since he’s fleeing and not even pretending to resist – is just flabbergasting.

    5. Kouros

      One needs to remember how just a while ago the entire Canadian Parliament & Government stood up and applauded a former nazi soldier from SS 14 Galicia division… because it fought against Russians…

  6. Terry Flynn

    re Banning American citizens from Chinese liaisons. I remember when on my stopovers in Singapore I “met” lots of locals who strictly speaking should not be doing stuff. Gaydar and then grindr totally circumvented the already shaky system.

    I doubt things will work out to the advantage of the admistration this time either. Lots of merkuns wanting “orientals”? Check. Lots of Chinese etc wanting US Green cards/passports (or Australian ones)? Check. Heck, when I moved back from Sydney the woman running the company cleaning my unit was CLEARLY the female head of the Sydney Chinese Mafia…….I even happened to encounter her in next queue at the bank depositing an INSANE amoung of cash in small bills…….no embarrassment whatsoever. (Westpac in Chinatown).

    She’d asked me my destination when I moved and explicitly told me “that’s a pity, my sister can’t get residency.” I said “sorry wouldn’t work, I play for the other team”. She said “Even better, she doesn’t want romance and we just need a guy”. I was gobsmacked and amused and wonder to this day if I missed a major money making opportunity.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Man, imagine having a posting in a place with all those beautiful, almond-eyed women but being told that forget it, you are grounded. Just like if you were a kid again. I’m surprised that Chinese social media has not mocked the US here by send the US Embassy boxes of tissues.

      1. Terry Flynn

        Yeah when I’ve had cause to think back to how it would’ve played out in practice I’m pretty sure the money wouldn’t have made it worthwhile.

        Those women working for “the mama” to clean my unit seemed terrified 24/7.

        1. Neutrino

          Same demeanor for the massage parlor people getting herded into the van at the end of the shift. Trafficking in a city near everyone.

          1. ambrit

            With the apparent demise of the “nail salons” around here, the North American Deep South, opportunities to ‘meet’ shy young things with almond eyes are all but gone.
            There is now a bit of a scare in the PNCs and adjacents here concerning the possibility of kidnapping and trafficking of especially young women.
            We definitely are devolving into a Medieval Age social sensibility.

            1. Terry Flynn

              Have you looked on YouTube about the absurdly and obviously uneconomic number of nail salons and barbers on the average British high Street?

              It explains someting I spotted 5 years ago and which puzzled me greatly.

              1. ambrit

                Thanks. On the YT queue now.
                I must admit to not previously considering the, er, interpersonal exchange possibilities of Ye Nayle Salon. The old massage parlours, yes. But they were more openly “transactional” in nature.
                “Hey Joe. We got a special on Half Way Around the World!”
                In a related note, many of the nail salons I noticed in days gone by were in Bigg Boxx stores. Go figure.
                Simpler times.

                1. Terry Flynn

                  I first thought “this is weird” 9+ years ago (so when we were in the EU). The main approach road into Nottm had 8 barbers in a line of 10 premises. WTF? My preferred barber was Bulgarian – best barber ever but there was no frickin way he was making a profit when charging a tenner for a 45 minute cut.

                  He started opening up, even saying “no idea why you idiots in the EU ever let us in”. His (much cleverer) wife was frequently on hand and told him to STFU. I even turned on my phone to do text translation of Bulgarian and saw what she was saying to him!

                  They’ve gone now……and have been replaced by….ANOTHER barber. What a surprise /s

                  These days in my attempts to minimise infection I have learnt to use electric cutters to do my own hair.

                  1. Norton

                    Portable skills and few barriers to entry, both attractive to immigrants.
                    I had a Russian barber who was good and talkative, so learned about the Golden Ring. If I ever travel to that art of the world, that will be on the itinerary.
                    Cultural exchanges take so many forms.

      2. Es s Ce Tera

        Previously, staffers could probably just declare relationships, in which case they were known and security checks could be conducted, but now at least a good portion of those will be hidden from view, undeclared, and pursued in secrecy. Well done.

        But this rather reminds me of Israel passing laws preventing marriage to Chinese workers to prevent “miscegenation” and “contamination” of bloodlines. I wonder if for the Trump admin it’s this same motivation, rather than security, given openly declaring relationships would be a better approach.

        1. Henry Moon Pie

          Where would the Israelis ever get such an idea?

          After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.”

          Ezra 9:1-2

        2. vao

          “But this rather reminds me of Israel passing laws preventing marriage to Chinese workers to prevent “miscegenation” and “contamination” of bloodlines.”

          Israel has been doing a few things to prevent its nationals from marrying goyims, but here I am a bit sceptical. Any reference describing that piece of legislation specifically targeting Chinese people?

          1. Es s Ce Tera

            Thank you, vao, for being sceptical. Always an opportunity to refresh/correct fuzzy recollections.

            As you probably know, marriage in Israel is regulated by the religious courts.

            So what Henry Moon Pie said above wrt Ezra 9:1-2 applies, but also (and note I’m not a rabbi or expert, just drawing from the interwebs):

            Torah
            Deuteronomy 7:3-4
            Exodus 34:15-16

            Talmud
            Yevamot 62b
            Sanhedrin 76b

            Halacha
            Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 16:1
            Mishneh Torah, Issurei Biah 12:1

            All explicitly forbid marriage between Jew and non-Jew, it’s unclean, against God, against Judaism, etc. But none of these specifically says “Chinese”.

            I think this is what I was recollecting which, while not a law, is a blatantly racist practice which I may have confused with the above religious laws.
            Chinese workers in Israel sign no-sex contract – Guardian, from 2003

            And there was a relatively recent piece in NC written by an academic examining Jewish vs Israeli nationalism/citizenship and various Israeli supreme court rulings, I think it briefly examined marriage but such is the state of search that it may as well have disappeared into the ether…

            1. Henry Moon Pie

              Thanks for those additional cites, especially from the Talmud and Halacha. The reason the Ezra quote is especially important is that Ezra is regarded in the rabbinical tradition as well as a majority of modern scholars as being responsible for putting the Torah and histories into something approaching its current form. Ezra is often called the “father of Judaism” by both Jewish and non-Jewish scholars, though there are dissenters from that view.

            2. steppenwolf fetchit

              And yet, if a non-Jew converts to Judaism and thereby becomes a Jew, marriage between the former non-Jew/now-Jew and the born-Jew is Judaismically perfectly fine. Or am I wrong?

              There are amateur jewologists who find scripture showing how very blood-racist the Jewish religion is. There are other amateur jewologists who theorize that because according to legend a mass-number of Khazars are said to have converted to Judaism and married into and spread their “genetics” throughout the Jewish community of Eastern Europe/Western Steppe-Asia . . . . that the Ashkenazi Jews of today are not “real” Jews because those certain other amateur jewologists feel that the Ashkenazis don’t have a sufficient quantity of the true Original Semitic Blood Quantum to satisfy those certain other amateur jewologists self-set requirements for ” Original Semitic percent Blood Quantum”.

              ( By the way, the US Federal Government set a minimum percent ” Blood Quantum” requirement for each Federally recognized Tribe. Any person lacking that level of so-called “Blood Quantum” true genetic descent is considered not a member of the Tribe. This was a clever Federal way to define the Tribes out of existence by declaring that not one member exists any more possessing the Federally demanded “Blood Quantum” percent. No Indians? No Tribe. No Tribe? No Treaty. No Treaty? No problem. Many Indians themselves say they reject the whole notion of “Blood Quantum” and have been Tribal Culture Descent peoples, not Genetic Blood Quantum Descent peoples.)

              It seems that the amateur jewological community in general wants to have its cake both ways and eat it too on this issue. Though I don’t know if any one-or-another amateur jewologist believes both things at the same time.

    3. Roger Blakely

      “Declassified State Department documents show that in 1987, the U.S. government barred personnel stationed in the Soviet bloc and China from befriending, dating or having sex with locals after a U.S. Marine in Moscow was seduced by a Soviet spy.”

      Doh!

  7. The Rev Kev

    ‘(2nd LD) Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, removes him from office”

    Could it be that the South Koran establishment decided that they had to get rid of this clown so that the country could have a new solid political leadership to deal the clown in the White House and his tariff demands. Sort of clearing the decks?

    1. Terry Flynn

      Perhaps. Though at the rate they are going in terms of fertility rates, the North Koreans will simply stroll across the border and achieve unification without a shot being fired.

      NK seems to have eliminated fewer of its population via famine etc than SK has done via capitalism-on-steroids.

      1. vao

        This will take quite some time though, the total population of North Korea being just half of the population of South Korea.

        1. Terry Flynn

          I confess I don’t know the NK population but the 0.75 fertility ratio in SK will reduce birth rate in size to 25% of current rate within 5 years. (Yeah yeah I’m a statistician and know the other factors but this is a truly scary big one to overcome).

          Ever watch “Chldren of Men”? Fantastic film.

    3. Unironic Pangloss

      apologies to any SK politicians reading. Almost the entire western world has the Lord of the Flies of the Short Bus problem w/their political elites.

      There is something is the inter-personal power dynamics that weeds out almost every ethical, circumspect, intelligent 30-something from higher echelons of power.

      Spoiler Alert: it’s access to oligarch money and the fact that there always is someone else who will be more craven than Mr. Smith* when it comes to having access to Gollum’s ring.

      * https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mr+smith+goes+to+washington

    4. hk

      The leading opposition candidate (incidentally, Yoon’s erstwhile rival while he was still in the opposition) is at least as big a clown–in fact, he was the biggest reason why Yoon won in the first place. As goofy as Yoon is, I wouldn’t expect SK politics to get any less clownish.

  8. Wukchumni

    Mm, man, dig Donald’s crazy schtick!

    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts
    They’re such short shorts
    We like short shorts
    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts

    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts
    They’re such short shorts
    We like short shorts
    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts

    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts
    They’re such short shorts
    We like short shorts
    Who plays short shorts?
    We play short shorts

    Short Shorts, by Royal Teens

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfFB5QF4iQ

    1. ChrisFromGA

      The beatings of 301ks will continue until morale improves.

      Boeing down 10% pre-market … couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of corporate tools!

      1. Wukchumni

        Of all the mysteries of the stock exchange there is none so impenetrable as why there should be a buyer for everyone who seeks to sell.

        John Kenneth Galbraith

        1. Unironic Pangloss

          >>>Of all the mysteries of the stock exchange there is none so impenetrable as why there should be a buyer for everyone who seeks to sell.

          The House (usually) is hedged. The House doesn’t care if one buys and sells, just that they’re in the pool

              1. ambrit

                Hmmm… Short shorts. Is someone demanding delivery today?
                (I draw the line at Brazilian Wall Street Waxing. That’s not the sort of “haircut” I was expecting.)

      2. Unironic Pangloss

        (I never bring up news unless someone else talks about it first)

        My cousin’s husband (both of them are junior high teachers) yesterday blurted a quip about the stock market—-then mentioned that they’ll likely scrap their summer vacation and replace it w/something local.

  9. Steve H.

    Richard D. Wolff and Michael Hudson on Trump’s Trade Policies: A Fast Track to Economic Ruin

    youtube.com/watch?v=594yN8rxIJo

  10. timo maas

    oh my fucking god pic.twitter.com/HryXr6aXO6
    — Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) April 3, 2025

    This is hilarious. Anyone that couldn’t be bothered clicking trough, should go back and do it. There is a screenshot of a tweet.

      1. Pearl Rangefinder

        I’m afraid we won’t be needing Davos Man’s ‘services’ any longer. Womp womp

  12. Wukchumni

    ‘Buchenwald Booker’ is probably too harsh of a sobriquet, but it makes for good word spiel.

          1. Christopher Smith

            He’s got form. I particularly appreaciate the way several fundraising emails made their way to me lauding his 25 hour gasbag-o-thon.

          2. Pat

            I had more of a close up of Booker from the days when he was mayor. Friends who lived in Newark spoke of him in terms reminiscent of me speaking of Cuomo and Adams. So kept an eye on him. Watched him pivot from Senator to President from almost day one of his senate term. Did get to see him work a crowd, both on the stage and off, for his book tour. He is similar to Trump in that he is great at the campaign skills but doesn’t have the skill or will to truly govern. And when you are owned that is even less likely to change with experience.

    2. caucus99percenter

      Speaking of Buchenwald: Israel has managed to force the organizers of the Buchenwald memorial event on April 11 to disinvite Israeli author and philosopher Omri Boehm, who had been scheduled to speak.

      https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/controversy-erupts-over-buchenwald-memorial-speech-withdrawal-310180

      https://www.qwant.com/?q=omri+boehm+author+philosopher

      What is even the point of these memorial rituals anymore, since they are all now being misused to “sell” Western publics on annexation and more annexation, war and more war, and genocide and more genocide?

  13. Revenant

    “Post-war Ukraine and the West Germany model” is one part fantastical delusion to two parts solipsistic hypocrisy. You can literally swap the words Russia and America to get an accurate précis of post-WWI history. It is astonishing that a thinking breathing human could write that piece without bleeding from their eyeballs or, like second worst poet in the Hirchhiker’s Guide universe, being strangled by his own intestines.

    As for the PMC sneering at the microstates among the tariff countries, those codes are UN approved country codes. Their use aa internet domains is just one case of their bureaucratic importance: I imagine they are used in US customs reporting for WTO etc. and the appearance of these territories arises from data entry errors in the trade data from which tariffs were calculated (see Guardian article today https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revealed-how-trump-tariffs-slugged-norfolk-island-and-uninhabited-heard-and-mcdonald-islands).

    For example, one can imagine software interfaces with record fields with predictive entry that may suggest Norfolk Island if a user inadvertently enters Norfolk under the country rather than county / state option. Similarly one can imagine that if on a dropdown list the Heard and McDonald islands come as the first or last of multiple Australian territories, somebody ignorantly choosing AU as the code for Austria (AT in reality) could end up defaulting to the Heard islands for Australia.

    1. Wukchumni

      We Americans used to learn the name of places by battles fought there, had we not gone to war with Iraq in 2003 there’s a good chance i’d have never heard of Fallujah, and who can put a price on that bit of knowledge?

      We’ve fallen to the level of a dumb beast sadly, but opportunities abound, as i’ve never heard of Heard Island or McDonald Island, so there’s that.

      1. AG

        >”We Americans used to learn the name of places by battles fought there”

        😂
        sorry, not funny. But still:
        😂

        p.s. When I communicate with Americans I always have to brace myself for some surprises over ideological delusions. Such as WMDs in Iraq or US war crimes at large. Usually there is agreement shrouded in a a very thick cloud of doubt. So I can only assume what the views are voiced during a local BBQ where I am not present.
        (I have managed to dodge Russia as a topic by some miracle.)

  14. Unironic Pangloss

    >>>>Our monopolized payments system is hindering 80% of small businesses, according to a Fed survey. Swipe fees, slow funds availability, data theft.
    TL/DR: try to keep your credit cards locked as much as possible if you are paranoid, like me. lol.

    Someone tried to charge a $1000 jail bond to one of my credit card’s last December. Fortunately it was locked and the charge blocked.

    But literally only one place had access to that card’s number….it was the local kids’ cafe. I doubt that the cafe itself was at fault…..presumably their payment processor?

    1. mrsyk

      I doubt that the cafe itself was at fault… Me too. A thousand dollar bail seems low in light of the potential crimes against food taking place at a kids’ cafe.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Do you keep for cards in RFID-safe protectors by any chance? You could try using a debit card. You would transfer amounts for purchases that you intend to make onto that card before going out and if it gets stolen the thieves would be blocked by the amount of money you have on it. I use a card like that for purchase over the internet for that reason. Once had a forty buck charge for a Philippines flight show up on it so cancelled that card, got my money back and got a replacement card.

      1. Betty

        A NYC subway worker told me (and showed me) how the
        omni card readers can “read” your omni card when
        you simply walk up to the entrance gate, charging you
        automatically. She said to keep the Omni card between
        credit cards to avoid this free charging until you get a metal protector.

    3. Neutrino

      My daughter was trailed in a store by a couple carrying a card detector in a frontpack. They were following people to detect and capture any info they could. She then heard them on the next aisle discussing whether they were close enough before to get the card details and go shopping. She recognized what was happening and called the card company to alert them and get a new card.
      Yet another reason to carry cards in a metal wallet for more security.

      1. Wukchumni

        …return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when all you were worried about was somebody getting the carbon paper of your credit card transaction

        1. Revenant

          The official sponsors of contactless payment cards, usually RFID cards, insist that they are secure and cannot be read. This is true… IF the criminals follow the technical standard! :-)

          Or, they can tear up the standard, build a really powerful directional transmitter / receiver and tickle your card from a distance….

          Here in the UK, some banks will issue cards without the contactless feature and I have requested that for mine. It is useful on a stored value card like the London Transport Oystercard but not on something connected to my salary and savings!

      2. ambrit

        Yep. That’s why I keep our ‘card’ in a Farraday cover unless at the point of payment.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Europeans look to Nato assets for Ukraine peace force”

    ‘Officials examine use of command and control systems and early-warning aircraft’

    Yeah, this is just countries like the UK and France using the ‘rock soup’ method to get the US fully involved into supporting the Ukraine militarily. A lot of those assets are US systems and will be used to bog down the US in the Ukraine. And I don’t even discount the possibility of a false-flag attack on a US asset such as a US aircraft to force Trump into responding by sending fighting forces. The Ukrainians would absolutely do that while the UK/France looked the other way. But Trump may be wise to this and to show his feelings, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be skipping the 27th Ramstein group (that discuses military aid to the Ukraine) and won’t be even putting in a video appearance-

    https://www.rt.com/news/615207-pentagon-ukraine-military-aid-meeting/

  16. MicaT

    Out of all that terrible news and links the one that pisses me off the most is Cory booker.
    He does a stunt of 25 hrs for nothing. He could have done that before the votes on the budget extension. And had a more meaningful statement.
    And then votes for genocide.
    Maybe he thinks the genocide is good. Maybe he’s too scared to say what he thinks.
    I wonder what the death count has to be for his moral compass to kick in.
    Obviously not yet.

    2. Buzz Meeks

      Eight donation requests from him so far and of course payable through ActBlue. F—g scum.

    3. Neutrino

      The silence is shocking, but not surprising.

      Which Congress Critter will break ranks first?

      Is there a dead pool? 1/2 /s

    4. JMH

      Booker’s performative speechifying could not have been a more empty gesture when coupled with his vote for genocide immediately after. There are at least 82 in the US senate who lack a moral compass. I despair of there ever coming a day when individually or collectively the denizens of the DC Bubble & Echo Chamber and their too numerous fellow travelers outside will awake and realize the monstrous dimensions of their inhumanity.

      1. Wukchumni

        The only thing Presstidigitation could report was the hand jive of setting a new record for being long winded. It made for a nice bookend of the fourth estate patting Kamala profusely for garnering a Billion bucks in campaign donations-she did it quicker than anybody before!

      2. joe murphy

        Booker is simply a homicidal killer.
        The moral collapse has already taken place, the financial and societal collapses are well on their way.
        No course corrections are allowed!
        The system is so rigged, it cannot be fixed.

  17. Buzz Meeks

    HANDS OFF! Mass Mobilization March, Saturday, April 5
    Check for time and place for you.

    handsoff2025.com

      1. Buzz Meeks

        Hopefully the irony works. Buffalo rally point is Niagara Square where OccupyBuffalo started.

          1. The Rev Kev

            A coupla years ago during the centenary years of the Russian revolution, I think that it was RT that set up an account that used tweets and the like as if the people back then had access to such and were tweeting their thoughts and what they saw-

            https://1917.rt.com/#!/en/twitter/live

            Wouldn’t it be great if they could so the same for the American Revolution starting next year? People could follow it playing out and how the people then saw it.

            1. caucus99percenter

              What a great idea! Looking forward to reading the tweets (X-ploits?) of (relatively tech-savvy for his time) “RealBenFranklin,” etc.

              For that exquiſitely authentic colonial touch though, creators would be well-adviſed to bruſh up on correct uſage of “long s”…

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

    2. Mikel

      “Hands” are being taken off.
      Should be called something like “algorithmsoff2025.com”

    3. Milton

      I’m going to a San Diego march but only in support of my wife. The march should be directed at Dems and how their focus in getting cash from oligarchs is the reason for Trump. Anyway, I’ll be plenty medicated while being surrounded by PMCs and ID pols of all stripes.

      1. Socal Rhino

        I have an acquaintance that will be attending in OC. I assume it’s organized by the DNC like the pink hat march from Trump 1.0.

  18. Terry Flynn

    Just attended a Zoom meeting for people who are maintaining sobriety. The service is specialised, quite often for people like me who suffered trauma (for me being a whistle blower).

    Our Labour Govt is defunding it. That does it. NOBODY in this house or anybody I know is going to vote Labour. Starmer is either an idiot (not understanding MMT) or actively evil (if he DOES understand MMT).

    On 1st May I predict Notts will go Reform. Ironically, the holdouts will be in Rushcliffe borough (the constituency Ken Clarke – “Old school wet” – held with MASSIVE majorities for years). So we will get a Reform County Council with the “official opposition” being the Tory Party. *sigh*

    1. The Rev Kev

      That’s tough to hear, Terry. I don’t think that anybody doubts that Starmer does not care about his fellow British. The Duran did a video recently about how bad the UK economy is going but Starmer is only worried and thinking about the Ukraine-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcn7mvilTMw (18:18 mins)

      1. Terry Flynn

        Thanks. I have had a small victory in persuading mum not to vote Reform.

        I just had to instruct her how to spoil her ballot paper (how do you NOT know how to do that?!) She doesn’t want to write the profanity I am going to write across mine on 1st May but knows that not a single party here in Notts is gonna help us.

        1. AG

          >”(how do you NOT know how to do that?!)”

          My father not being an academic and not speaking the language that well but watching news 24/7 and being a perfectionist in his own affairs did NOT know that he could cast ONLY 2 votes on the German national election´s ballot, 1 for local direct candidate and 1 for national party vote.
          I was surprised.
          On the other hand – did it matter? No.

          1. Terry Flynn

            I am trying to think up a funny insult. The Italians/Spanish/Portugese have very funny elaborate insults. I don’t want to resort to our Anglo eff and cee words. They’re boring and show no imagination.

            Plus I KNOW the vote counters appreciate a good spoilt ballot and share the comment amongst themselves privately once the official vote is concluded and verified.

            A strange sort of reputation but it’s all I’ve got these days ;-)

              2. AG

                >”“Dégage!””

                Is quoting whom?
                Yellow vests?
                Robespierre??
                Vercingetorix???
                Sarkozy????
                Alain Prost?????
                Carla Bruni??????
                MLP???????

                1. vao

                  “Dégage!” was a popular slogan around the time of the Arab Spring.

                  IIRC, it was first widely used in Tunisia, then spread to France, as well as other French-speaking African regions, and the translation was taken up in further countries (e.g. “Irhal!” in Egypt).

                  1. AG

                    I must have missed that detail back in those days. Horrible how long ago the events appear now.

            2. AG

              >”I don’t want to resort to our Anglo eff and cee words. They’re boring and show no imagination.”

              Interesting though how this might change depending on the speaker´s nationality. Non-native speakers who do not live in English-speaking territories might apply lower standards of imagination towards Engl. cursing vocabulary simply because what is (sub)standard to you as native appears still exceptional (and sexy) to “us” foreigners.

              p.s. Alas this is of course especially true for English as still lingua franca. One of the issues American expats in Berlin are suffering – they have been criticized for not speaking German properly. But how are you supposed to learn German when all your German contacts have the insane urge to practice their English on you. It´s simply impossible to not speak English in Berlin as an English-speaking nationale.

            3. Kouros

              Cave of monkeys masquerading as an institution? That is from an essay assignment of a S Korean student about my wife ex employer (a private school with tutors marking assignments from overseas)

    2. ex-PFC Chuck

      The politicians of whatever stripe do not get MMT because it destroys the raison d’être of their bankster paymasters.
      As the American, early 20th century muckraker Upton Sinclair put it, ” It’s very difficult to convince a man of something when his salary depends on his not being convinced of it.”

  19. Mikel

    Trump says things are ‘going very well’ after worst stock market drop in years over tariffs – AP

    Just spitballin’ here, but:
    Index investors should have zoomed way out on those before the tariffs and been terrified. It was like “the line goes WTF?”. And people played along and believed unbelievable things before Nov. 2024 (more Alice in Wonderland thoughts come to mind on this subject).

    1. ChrisFromGA

      If investors could foresee an event, they’d panic early and the crash would still have happened, but on a sooner timeline.

      Sort of like the way an observer changes the state of a particle just by observing (quantum physics.)

      To your point, yes folks should have seen this coming. Stonks have been ridiculously inflated and overvalued since April of 2020. The whole post COVID rally needs to come off, IMO, but that means SP 2300 and tons-o-pain.

      1. Wukchumni

        Meanwhile in the engineering section of the U.S. enterprise…

        ‘Cap’n, we’re running a weee bit low on de-riskium crystals, and the shields, they canna hold on much longer.’

        1. ChrisFromGA

          When the Market Breaks

          If it keeps on rainin’ the market is gonna break
          If it keeps on rainin’ the market is gonna break
          When the market breaks, I have no place to go home

          Mean old market taught me to weep and moan
          Mean old market taught me to weep and moan
          It’s got what it takes to make a boomer man sell his home

          Oh well, oh well, oh well
          Don’t it make you feel bad
          When you’re tryin’ to find your way home
          You don’t know which way to go?
          If you’re goin’ down south
          They got no work to do
          If you’re going down to Chicago

          Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good
          No, cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good
          When the market breaks, mama, you got to move to cash, ooh

          All last night sat on positions and moaned
          All last night sat on the market and moaned
          Thinkin’ ’bout my baby and my natty Dow Jones
          Ah-oh

          Ah, ah, ah, ah
          Ah, ah, ah, ah
          Goin’
          I’m goin’ to Chicago
          Goin’ to Chicago
          Sorry, but I can’t take you, ahhh
          Goin’ down, we’re goin’ down now
          Goin’ down, we’re goin’ down now
          Goin’ down, we’re goin’ down
          Goin’ down, I think this sucker is goin’ down

          (African-American blues traditional, as performed by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham)

          1. mrsyk

            This song has been on my mind (on the turntable as well).
            When the levee breaks
            I got nowhere to go
            Comprehensive relativity, good times.

        2. ambrit

          “Scotty, we need the Plunge Protection Team on this yesterday!”
          “Imma sorry captain but we are all out of Time Dilation Substances!”
          “What about Quantum Bubble Foaming Gel?”
          “Captain. No! Not a haircut!”
          “But, but, we can’t just do something!”
          “Into the Singularity we go captain! See you on the other side!”
          The rest is silence.

  20. AG

    re: Yemen

    Thankfully Mokhiber is writing this. I don´t know of any German outlet pointing out the legal ramifications. Which is a scandal.

    Craig Mokhiber
    Yemen Is Acting Responsibly To Stop Genocide and the US Is Bombing Them for It
    https://scheerpost.com/2025/04/04/yemen-is-acting-responsibly-to-stop-genocide-and-the-us-is-bombing-them-for-it/

    Last phrase of this important piece sums it up:

    “Supplying, facilitating the supply, or failing to act to stop the supply of the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestine or of its genocide in Palestine, are serious violations of international law.

    Yemen is meeting these obligations. The U.S. is violating them.”

      1. AG

        Good luck finding that info in German media.
        Fuck me.

        p.s. We do have ONE German MP who is from Yemen.
        He was with DIE LINKE until he left to form BSW.
        Engl. Wiki is not very informative but at least you have a face
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Al-Dailami
        I don´t know how this guy doesn´t go nuts.
        I mean we already had 400k die of various causes.
        Which was ignored while it unfolded and has been totally forgotten since.
        And now this shitshow.

  21. Mikel

    “This might be the first large-scale application of AI technology to geopolitics.. 4o, o3 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, Claude 3.7, Grok all give the same answer to the question on how to impose tariffs easily. ”
    – pic.twitter.com/r1GGubcz8cl

    Which reminds me…
    After a brief discussion on NC about attacks on academic research, it crossed my mind that there could be more attempts to shove half-assed AI down peoples throats.
    95% of all this mess of the last few months could be about saving the AI con by removing from various fields the people that would call out the con.
    It’s all a bunch of policy from fintech bros throwing a hissy fit because people aren’t trashing their lives by adopting LLMs and alleged “AI” fast enough. It’s about them trying to save their pocketbooks.

    1. Mikel

      And more people probably would have adopted some of the organizing tools, but people wanted a tool and not an automated authoritarian overlord.

  22. Wukchumni

    Looking for a silver lining to Benedict Donald, and he’s gonna go down as the man who killed golf, and i’m ok with that.

  23. The Rev Kev

    “Chartbook 368 “I have only committed the mistake of believing in you, the Americans.” The day after Trump’s “Liberation Day” in SE Asia.”

    After all these tariffs, Trump is going to find it tough finding allies in Asia to confront China with. Vietnam got slammed with 46% tariffs so the next time the Pentagon shows up asking about using bases in that country, I suspect that they will get a frosty reception. Come to think of it, a lot of Asian countries got hit hard. Cambodia got hit with 49% tariffs, Laos 48% tariffs and Sri Lanka 44% tariffs. I think that a lot of the Pentagon’s plans for using those Asian countries against China have just now collapsed.

    1. Expat2uruguay

      You’re not being cynical enough. Trump applies the tariffs and then negotiates to get them removed. So those plans of militarizing those countries have been advanced with the tariffs. It’s a multi-step process

  24. OIFVet

    “Shock therapy on a civilizational scale”

    If Eastern Europe is any guide, replace “people” with “oligarchy” in “Government of the people, by the people and for the people” and we will have the sought-after end state.

  25. Carolinian

    Re payment systems–our just opened minor league ballpark has said that it is a cash free venue so you’ll need a bank account to buy those peanuts and Crackerjacks not to mention the tickets themselves. Perhaps the poors can go to Dollartree and get a prepay Visa card in order to cheer on the team.

    But then the great American pastime had already become middle class phenomenon, no?

    1. Socal Rhino

      Judging by prices the last time I attended cactus league games, was already trending upper middle class.

    2. Unironic Pangloss

      nothing personal….but clearly you’re not a sport-ball fan, lol.

      Even with at local, very losing baseball team…. 1 decent seat = $100, before parking, beer, food.

      I think that they offer $10 seats in the nose bleeding hoi-polloi section…but after including parking and one soda, you might as well stay home unless you are a rabid fan.

      and don’t get me started on movies.

    3. petal

      Rochester’s AAA team just announced that as well the other week-no more cash. Not sure how many people dare venture downtown anymore, though.

    4. lyman alpha blob

      Same thing happened to me 2-3 years ago. I walked up to the ticket window in Greensboro, NC and tried to pay cash for tickets while the rest of my group went to park. If I remember right, they hadn’t completely banned cash yet, but they also couldn’t figure out how to take my paper $$$ and hand me tickets. I waited around a half hour until the rest of my party showed up, and I think we just wound up paying by card so we could get in before the game started.

      And of course the tickets were all digital, so no ticket stub souvenir anymore either. Want a momento of the game, you’ll need to pony up extra.

    5. Wukchumni

      I’ve so far managed to never see the Visalia Rawhide play locally, and i’d like to keep that record intact, plus with tix @ $54 for iffy seats, who’d bother?

  26. The Rev Kev

    “Trump open to tariff negotiations, contradicting White House aides”

    And here is where the shakedown starts. He expects the whole world to beat a path to his door offering all sorts of economic concessions and opening up their countries to US financial corporations for sanction relief. Every relationship to him is transactional and his son Eric Trump is as bad when he tweeted ‘I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump. The first to negotiate will win – the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life…’ I have seen this movie too and it ended real bad for the protagonist – and those around them.

  27. Mikel

    I got a chuckle when I clicked over to Wolfstreet yesterday.

    https://wolfstreet.com/2025/04/03/103178/
    Stocks Plunge as the Market Understood What Tariffs Are: A Tax on Corporate Profit Margins

    It was interesting reading his viewpoint and framing of the situation.

    My chuckle came at the comment section.
    One comment from Wolf.

    But I also wonder if he got hit with some kind of bot attack?

    1. ChrisFromGA

      I am sympathetic to Wolf’s viewpoints. I think there is something overlooked here insofar as the sentiment that tariffs are all bad.

      Rubio said something interesting today:

      Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States,”

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/rubio-says-markets-will-recover-after-trump-tariff-announcement/ar-AA1CiGGk?ocid=BingNewsSerp

      This might be the first time since childhood I can recall a major politician admitting that corporations aren’t always wonderful. Ever since Reagan, the underlying theme has been that corporations can do no wrong. Clinton, Bush the First, Shrub the lesser, The Wizard of Kalorama, all bended the knee to multinationals. To the detriment of we the people.

      Obama briefly chastised big banks … then backed down like a puppy. What if he had nationalized the banks, taken them over, fired the boards, and recapitalized them as utilities? Would we be in the place we’re in today?

      1. Endeavor

        Am surprised folks on Naked Capitalism are not in line with tariffs more. The PMC and their enablers have been running away with the place for several decades at the expense of the working class. I have read many comments by Eves over the years calling out Wall Street for the damage they have caused by seeking slave labor to replace Americans. Even more so, this globalization is responsible for much of the Climate Change problem with massive movement of products around the world v. much shorter supply lines where the goods are consumed. I have heard that you smell bunker fuel diesel the entire route on ocean shipping lanes as one of the heaviest source of pollution in the world. (Along with the US Navy with burns untold amounts keep these lanes open from pirates).

        1. Michael Fiorillo

          Is it push-button opposition to tariffs, or recognition of the bad faith and incompetence among Trump and his principals? I’ll choose Column B.

    2. AG

      (Is there any relation between China/BRICS and these tariffs which are to the detriment of those very nations that have borrowed heavily from China or are important partners in the R&B Initiative?)

  29. Unironic Pangloss

    So I went to the local Progressive Mega-Lo Mart Warehouse to buy a little more than usual…

    no one is fighting over toilet paper or filling their pick-up with pallets of organic Soma.

    I think that we are only at the bottom of the first inning, from the Normie point of view. The Commentariat, while very grounded, are not Normies. but who knowz….maybe at the Costco CFO’s dashboard transaction sales are through the roof

    1. ambrit

      Yes. I was surprised at the quiescence of the shoppers at our local Bigg Boxx store yesterday.
      I’m wondering how long it will take the retailers to hike prices, even if only on the sentiment.

      1. Ex5

        Here’s an expat observation, if the US is going to replace some of its income tax policy with import tax policy/tariffs, Wellie….

  30. Kontrary Kansan

    Jason Stanley did not get asked what he thought of the Canadian Parliament applauding a former Nazi. Nor did he comment on fascist tendencies in Canadian history.
    Yet, he think Canada is, um, free.

  32. AG

    re: genocide Germany

    You just gotta loooooove Germany.

    Omri Boehm was supposed to give a speech at Buchenwald.

    Then: Israel complained.

    They pulled off some typical trick doing it behind everyones´ back calling survivors and putting them under pressure – probably hoping some of them might die of a heart attack.

    Then the director of Buchenwald backed out. And canceled the event.
    See interview with BERLINER ZEITUNG below:

    Note: He apparently spoke with ONE survivor.

    Does he suggest the Israeli government are genocidal asshole maniacs who should rot in prison and should keep the fuck outa Buchenwald´s projects and German affairs?
    Sorry, trick question.

    Omri Boehm case: Israeli government officials called Buchenwald concentration camp survivors
    Philosopher Omri Boehm was scheduled to speak at a memorial ceremony. Jens-Christian Wagner explains why he pulled the emergency brake and refused to allow Omri Boehm to speak at the memorial.
    https://archive.is/b03G0

    His dragging his feet is just – the German way?

    He offers a lot of BS-hot air and then there is this one sentence which provides the real reason:

    Q: This interference reminds me of the criticism the Israeli government leveled at the then director of the Jewish Museum Berlin a few years ago.

    A: He was subsequently forced to resign.

    KA-BOOOM. No follow-up question.

    Yeah baby.
    I go back watching Austin Powers…

  34. AG

    re: Germany WWII RU memory

    Russian/Belarussian diplomats are banned from 80-year-memorial services in Germany

    BERLINER ZEITUNG:

    Secret handout: Baerbock doesn’t want Russians at war commemoration
    On the anniversary of the end of the war, the Foreign Office fears that Russians might attend the commemorative events. They are being treated according to “house rules.”
    https://archive.is/rd9g6

  35. AG

    from Monthly Review

    “(…)
    Michael Burawoy, one of the world’s most prestigious Marxist sociologists, was killed by a hit-and-run driver near his home in Oakland, California, on February 3, 2025, at age 77. Burawoy was a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was most famous for his 1979 book, Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism, an ethnographic study of how workers routinely consent to their own exploitation, which was based on his work experience in a Chicago machine shop. As president of the American Sociological Association in 2004, he made his theme the advancement of public sociology, extending beyond the academy. He served as president of the International Sociological Association from 2010–2014. In the April–June 1990 issue of Socialist Review, Burawoy published an article titled “Marxism Is Dead, Long Live Marxism,” which was reprinted shortly afterwards in William K. Tabb, ed., The Future of Socialism: Perspectives from the Left (Monthly Review Press, 1990). There he strongly criticized what he called “the ‘Marxism is dead’ school,” arguing that as long as capitalism exists Marxism will be its nemesis, since the contradictions of the system will constantly reproduce the need for socialism.
    (…)”

  36. Wukchumni

    $4.01k update:

    Bitcoin has been strong like bull in the face of Dow Jonestown having a house fall on it-not dissimilar to the wicked witch of the east. This is perhaps due to the former being a time-honored AAA rated investment and widely respected by everybody.

    1. nyleta

      With the large currency movement last night gold is finally above AUD 5,000 winning me a bet with a friend. I moved everything within Australian borders last year. If global trade gets into real trouble there will be capital controls .Of course those powerful people who issue margin calls in gold not fiat haven’t acted yet but when they do expect a large drop.

      Australia, New Zealand and Canada house prices are a real vulnerability to their banks, this is the one bright thing the US has going for it, not half as big a house price problem. Fast payments have forced elevated bank reserves world wide which may help in the first instance but the scale of the problem in the long term is beyond a reserves solution. Mr Powell can sit for a while but job losses will soon force him to move one way or another..

      1. ChrisFromGA

        Not wanting to create homework for a fellow commenter, but if and only if you have the info on the tip of your tongue, would you mind explaining how capital controls would play out for individual investors? If I, as a US citizen, hold a foreign ETF, say EWZ (Brazilian stocks), does it get “vaporized” or liquidated via forced-selling? Or just a ban on future buys?

        ( I can also look it up myself and do my own homework, so feel free to ignore the request!)

        Interesting to see gold moving higher in the AUD – it took a pretty big hit in $USD the past few days.

        1. nyleta

          That is one of the problems, they would probably start off in an adhoc, politically used way, just like Mr Trump’s tariffs. No one knows and can know going forwards about how such things can be implemented under the new regime. It is the Trump uncertainty principle.

          I am expecting a much more generalised war ( not WW3 ) and capital controls are usual in war time, hence my stopping overseas investments. For at least a year I have been unable to send my nephews in UK overseas cheques, such things have been stopped in Australia so they have full control of overseas payments and platforms and would be able to do it overnight I believe.

          Countries like Australia always had capital controls in their future since they never have enough reserve assets in foreign currency but depend on US dollar swaps in bad times, but can we depend on the US now they are becoming strangers to us ?

          1. ChrisFromGA

            Thanks. Hopefully in the future, I won’t need to do math like, “how many 8 oz gold bars can I fit in my cowboy boots and still make it past the border guards, given one bar needs to be used for a bribe?”

  38. Tom Stone

    It will be interesting to see how Trump reacts to the revelation that his administration is pursuing foreign policy based on ChatGPT and sanctioning penguins.
    He is thin skinned, as are almost all of our “Elites” , they take themselves very seriously indeed.
    Being subject to well deserved ridicule is likely to provoke a volcanic response…
    Last week it was accidentally inviting a reporter to a top secret Signal Chat, this week it’s sanctioning penguins.
    Hilarious.
    On consideration, Chat GPT might be better at negotiations than Witkoff.

    1. JustTheMusks

      Trump can only be proud of using the latest of Grok technology, because it’s a great technology, the best one in the world as a matter of fact. As far as penguins go, he never liked them anyway, with their fake suits. They had it coming.

    1. AG

      Thanks.

      One question though to Mr. Woit – with the risk of being unjust as I have only read this bit. I do not know the man from last year or the years before:

      But did he call the Zionist billionaire Alumni who are financing US ivy league universities fascists in 2024 or 2023? Perhaps those very groups who paid for his own science department? Call them fascists before the government did to the universities what the universities did to the recalcitrant students? And anyway: is anybody reporting about what is going on behind the scenes – that is between the real owners of the universities and the government?

      13 members of the current administration are described as billionaires. Don´t tell me these folks don´t know each other.

      It reminds me of MeToo when one billionaire pissed of another billionaire and they made a huge splash in public. However the abuse which comes with the industry is of course still there. How should it not?

      It will only go away if the industry does or the economic system…

      Of course, if someone fires a pumpgun at a gala dinner from 100 meters away to kill the host dozens of guests get hurt who are not involved. But still they were at the party too as they got invited because they are millionaires, nothing less.

      I am certainly not a propagandist of the “Luigi” kind. But where there is a pattern there are structural causes.

      p.s. What would normal people do – they would ally and organize and fight back. But will the US ivy league unite? Possibly share some of there wealth with poor institutions to upset the system? In order to actually change those structural causes that have enabled this in the first place? I suspect rather would hell freeze over.

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