Another article on bonds, if you feel like a longish read:
«Yet the underlying problem will remain: The process of upending the global-trading system, which escalated again Friday, is making investors everywhere less confident in holding U.S. financial assets. The ultimate outlet for this is the dollar, which keeps plummeting against major developed currencies, and may have much lower to go.»
«Among the possible knock-on effects is a big hit to ordinary Americans in the form of higher interest rates on mortgages, car financing and other loans.
“As yields move higher, you’ll see your borrowing rates move higher, too,” said Brian Rehling, head of fixed income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “And every corporation uses these funding markets. If they get more expensive, they’re going to have to pass along those costs customers or cut costs by cutting jobs.”»
I have no doubt this was not a surprise to her.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/megyn-kelly-shocked-young-gop-men
«“That was my goal in helping him, especially with women. I wanted to look them in the eyes, figuratively, and say: Trust me. You know I’m pro-woman, and you know I’ve expressed doubts about him in the past, about some of the choices he’s made when it came to dealing with women, but there is no other choice for women in this election,” Kelly explained.
There was, of course, another choice for women, but let’s not get too off track here.»
Also, yeesh, that picture at the top. Did somebody run it through AI, or was she just that airbrushed?
https://www.natesilver.net/p/wall-street-thinks-trumps-tariffs
«In percentage terms — which is the better way to look at this — the drop in the markets wasn‘t quite so bad: a mere 3.98 percentage point loss in the Dow on Thursday, and 4.84 points in the broader S&P 500. Still, even though Trump had announced “Liberation Day” in advance, Wall Street has persistently failed to take Trump’s tariff threats seriously enough: Thursday’s declines were on top of the downward adjustments stocks already made after the Canada-Mexico tariffs, the auto tariffs Trump announced last week, and whatever expectations for “Liberation Day” were already priced into the market.»
…
«Trump-supporting sycophants in Silicon Valley — I’m sorry to use such invective; it’s really not my style, but I don’t think a softer term is precise enough — are either lying to you or lying to themselves about this. Here’s Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, which was once one of the most prestigious VC firms in the Valley but whose reputation has suffered after investments in Sam Bankman-Fried and other miscalculations:
[something about stock market not revealing truth about economy.]
OK, Shaun, did you actually look at stocks? Which ones suffered the biggest losses? Because I did. And they’re largely consumer staples from the lower-middlebrow on up, or cyclical purchases — like autos and air travel — that Americans consume more of when they think good times are ahead and pull back from when they’re in the brace position preparing for a recession.»
…
«And if Wall Street is right and we get to the point where Americans are stocking up on booze and cigarettes but avoiding buying new toys or taking their kids to Six Flags — and don’t even dream of upgrading their cars or their homes — and all of this is because of some back-office employee who used ChatGPT to upend the global trade system … look I don’t know what the bottom is in Trump’s approval ratings. But it will be tested in a way it probably never was during the first term. There’s no constituency for this, and the excuses you’re seeing from Silicon Valley are transparent cope. Trump just basically has to hope that Wall Street is wrong, or that the economy, which was pretty good when he took office, has enough gas in the tank to ride it out.»
Angry goose: and why was the economy so great?
Focusing on the revenue part… AOC said the Republicans need to find $4 trillion for their tax cuts. Here’s a big part, I guess. Yay, tax cuts. I wonder how Wall Street feels about this?
«It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.»
Today’s topics: Institute for Museum and Library Services (please reinstate), Smithsonian Institute (please support in current form, WITHOUT “ideological changes”), fkn TARIFFS (I had something to say about those).
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/
The next time Republicans claim tax increases will reduce employment, I guess we need to ask them to come up numbers like these.
Because I *detest* images of text:
A real question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’
THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:
That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought “Fine.” (https://www.usatoday.com/…/trump-university…/502387002/)
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay.” (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions…)
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem.” (https://abcnews.go.com/…/list-trumps-accusers…/story…)
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/donald-trumps…/)
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you exclaimed, “He sure knows me.” (https://www.usatoday.com/…/president-donald…/4073405002/)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, “That’s cool!” (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/donald-trump-criticized-after…)
That when you heard him brag that he doesn’t read books, you said, “Well, who has time?” (https://www.theatlantic.com/…/americas-first…/549794/)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.” (https://www.usatoday.com/…/what-trump-has…/1501321001/)
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!” (https://www.latimes.com/…/la-na-trump-campaign-protests…)
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!” (https://www.independent.co.uk/…/donald-trump-orders…)
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!” (https://www.theatlantic.com/…/why-cant-trump…/567320/)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.” (https://www.huffpost.com/…/trump-insult-foreign…)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!” (https://www.politico.com/…/138-trump-policy-changes…)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!” (https://www.usnews.com/…/how-is-donald-trump-profiting…)
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/the-very-big-ocean…/)
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!” (https://www.cnn.com/…/donald-trump-dictators…/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they’re just “animals” – and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/more-5-400-children-split…)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/…/confronting-cost…/)
What you don’t get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also… hear me… charitable.
Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.
– Adam-Troy Castro
(To all who agree with its content, I ask that you PLEASE SHARE IT on your own post, and ENCOURAGE OTHERS to do the same.)
Here, Read This 