Raúl Ilargi Meijer
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That’s what Larry Summers is on record telling both Varoufakis and Elizabeth Warren, Nassim: “”..insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.”
Haven’t read the article, zerosum, but from what I’ve seen, Trump already waived the Jones Act right after Maria struck, and after much protest from shippers now decided to waive it yet again. DOesn’t sound like something you can put on his plate. Shouldn’t be his anyway, Congress could have done this from the get-go.
Do make sure you read this, grasshoppers:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/hurricane-puerto-rico-jones-act.htm
That’s cool V. Arnold. It makes me think like: they say the victor writes history, but the US lost that war and all wars ever after that they started. So who’s writing what, really?
Party on, that Canada thing is as scary as it is poorly written. “For each $1.00 the economy grew in this 1 year period the total debt outstanding increased by $5.48.”
Quite possible that China wants all escape channels shut, either because of the Party Congress where Xi must look like Great Leader, or because they’re planning a big crackdown (they may know the economy is really not doing well, i.e. debt levels). Or both.
Bitcoin is now below $3000. China regulator demanded all exchanges stop at the end of today, not Oct 1 as first reported. I still think there are too many puzzles surrounding crypto. For now, bitcoin feels more like Netscape, certainly not like gold (bad comparison in my view). The technology will survive and grow, but the tokens may not.
Max is a smart cookie. He just gets carried away at times. His call to buy buy buy silver a few years back didn’t really go anywhere (either). But Nicole and I had some good times with them a few years ago.
Fixed that Ken, but at the same time that’s just details, and not what I’m after.
America can’t pay back its debts already, and the storms will make it impossible to keep hiding that simple fact. By adding more debt as the only way out.
Looks like Trump will get his infrastructure spending, eh?
Well, yeah, sort of. But it’ll take a trillion bucks just to repair the damage, and that will do very little towards upgrading infrastructure. And Washington won’t spend that trillion, if only because it doesn’t have it. Individuals and companies will have to spend on repairs, but it won’t be a net positive, it’ll just be shifted from other spending, and they have no spending money available to start with. If Irma hits Florida the way it’s predicted, the cost will be so high they’ll make sure we’ll never hear the number. At SwissRe and Munich Re calculators are doing overtime. They don’t have that kind of money either. But the system needs re-insurers.
Diogenes,
As we’ve written all the time, the crux/clincher is in dollar-denominated debt outside of the US. People, companies, governments who hold that debt will need dollars to pay it off. And when margin calls come, and/or interest rates rise, they will all want those dollars. All fiat currencies are under pressure, if not under threat, but all this means it won’t be the first to go.
Michael Lebowitz @michaellebowitz 37s38 seconds ago
Markets should get interesting at 3:30 when everyone decides how much risk they want to leave on the table for the weekend
I guess we all know the stories about the gay penguins etc., but still. In the end life is all about hormones. You don’t mate, you’re dead. Which brings up even more thoughts about black swans and economics, or even life in general. Unexpected, or rather unexpectable, events not only come in pairs, they need to mate. Hmmm…
v.arnold.
The ‘swan keeper’ says it doesn’t matter if the other black swan is male or female. that got me thinking: how many species are there for which that would be true?
But I’m just theorizing there, thinking out loud. One thing I think is certain is that the volatility index won’t come back down anytime soon. And that WILL have a large effect on economies, on loans, on everything. I don’t think anyone -other than John McCain and his ilk- really want to throw a nuke bomb, but the prospect of it happening is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
bluebird,
There’s no doubt finance could play a role in this. the VIX volatility index was up 50%(?!) yesterday, though from lows so low they are essentially meaningless. What’s saying more is the tendency to move money out of emerging markets (wait till everyone reads their weekend papers). And gold of course is strong. So yes, as a way to move out of risk and back to America, it would seem to fit a pattern.
rheba et al
If supporting a president is provocative, that’s quite something. “He looks like he wants war” may have something to do with the impression the media have been giving of him through time. Obama didn’t look it, I guess, and to his credit he held off some ‘creative’ ideas from warmongers, but he did set out to murder Gaddafi, and is largely responsible for the mess in ME/NA.
Trump might not shy away from a Grenada style ‘war’, but he has nothing to gain from a conflict so close to nukes. That can only go wrong, and he would get all the blame while McCain etc. get the ‘game’ they want.
American politics is in a very deep crisis, much deeper than most people seem to realize, and other than Trump there’s no-one in sight who can do anything about it. Trump lay bare that crisis, by having everyone turn against him. It shows us how tight the powers that be, are. McCain, Hillary, CNN, NYT, it’s all the exact same thing.
None of that makes me a Trump fan or anything remotely like it. He should not be president. But he is. And looking at the other options, I understand why he is. His role is to show us what an amoral cesspit Washington has become.
I wouldn’t expect everyone to agree with me, and perhaps hardly anyone at all. But what I see is:
• There are no good choices in Washington.
* Trump is certainly not the worst choice.
• Trump is the elected US president.
• Far too many people try to unseat him, on all sides of all aisles.
* Trump doesn’t want to start a war (he’s afraid of it).
Charlie Hall sent me a mail questioning my omission of energy factors (biophysical elements, in his words) in the productivity discussion. Charlie’s right (as usual), of course they would have to be part of a broader discussion, but I wanted to stick with the two graphs as the main ingredients of the story.
But I sure still like “A cowardly braggart!”. Hard to best that.
I mean, when’s the last time you called someone that? But you know you should have…
yeah yeah, unwise-ass
as for the pic, that how it’s presented at the site the pic links to, and you make sense, but I can’t always check every single letter
as for SNL, who cares what their shit is called anymore, even if I spelled that wrong? I sure don’t they threw themselves back by lightyears
what I was thinking after posting this was it’s not about Scaramouch, it’s about Trump and King Lear, and I saw that too late to change the title.
It’s about the whole drama of kings and presidents and their demise. I didn’t do that justice
In my view, the Tragedy of the Commons is an abstract. Its abuse for various reasons confirms its validity, rather than contradicting it. It offers an accurate description of our entire supposedly democratic systems as well.
Yes, with the GMO deals coming, ironically China, like America, is on its way to high fructose corn syrup and mass obesity.
Greece will get a lot worse. Bulgaria may be poor, but it is not being strangled by Berlin, Brussels and their banks. It doesn’t have 60,000 refugees on its soil either.
The Chinese people are very much anti-GMO, quasi hysterically so. That Syngenta move will have to be shoved down their throats with force.
The case of Greece is a little different from most. Having shrunk 27%, they could ‘grow’ 10% and do well with that. Greece needs money to flow through its veins. To keep businesses open that simply sell simple daily necessities to Greeks; the minimum requirements to keep functioning are being destroyed right now. there is no reason or justification for that. Unless you want to buy up all they have for pennies on the buck.
I think maybe the thing is that you keep on paying your barber to cut your hair. If he loses his job, so will you.
Point kind of taken, Tony, but all those millions of civil servants now have to abide by the rules dictated by the EU’s 33,000. Where applicable, for sure, but they’re applicable in very many cases. Not saying that’s always bad, or even in most cases, but it is Europe’s reality. And it’s often a good thing: you don’t want Bulgarian products on the shelf without any rules or quality control. It’s the top that screws it all up with grandiose vistas of power. And it’s the bottom -Greece, Italy, that pays the price. The lower levels do a lot of good work. But that work is being defeated by the likes of Juncker and Dijsselbloem. A feature, not a bug.
True enough Chris, but she’s an interesting voice given that she’s an insider, even if her recent attention comes from having written a book, which still demands a lot of ‘media prostitution’, I wish a knew a better term.
Greeks haven’t risen vs Tsipras because all other options are worse; anybody but him, with the possible exception of the communists, belongs to the parties that got them into this mess.
I actually do have an idea where the Midwest is, but as you say it doesn’t seem to be in the same spot for everyone. The Ogallala to me was always -under- the Great Plains. The Great Desert Plains for the next 10 generations or so.
neoh,
Thanks for your trust. I want to thank everyone who’s helped me help Greece for that trust.
As for shutting things down, we’ll see; it’s all we can do really. Until then, There is no choice but to keep doing what we do here in Athens, keep rowing against all currents.
