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#3 | Posted by censored at 2025-08-15 11:27 PM
Trump putting on a show that he's not Putin's Beach.

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Re #6 - sorry, wrong thread... again.
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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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Re #15 - sorry, wrong thread
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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-07 06:04 PM
Are corporations using their new tax cuts to buy back their stock, raising the stock price?

There were no significant "new" corporate tax rate cuts or increases in One Big Bloody Budget-Busting Bill - it mostly stopped the tax rate set in 2017's TCJA from expiring at the end of 2025, making it "permanent"... unless and until Congress changes them. It was the same 2017 rate throughout the "great economy" and deficits of both Trump and Dark Brandon. There are some accelerated deductions and amortizations for R&D and other expenses but these are not "new tax cuts" that would materially affect corporations decisions to "buy back their stock."

Also, I don't know why "stock buybacks" would be considered "evil" or such a sore issue for anyone.

They aren't necessarily "raising the stock price" - many public/listed corporations routinely buy back stock to account for dilution, i.e., issuance of new stock as compensation to its employees, including directors, executives, pension and 401(k) plans, stock mergers/buyouts, outside contractors etc.

It's also a tax-preferred way of returning some value to the stock owners, as opposed to direct dividends, which usually drop the price of stock ex-dividend and are taxable, unless in tax-deferred or tax-free accounts.

For example, "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway ($1T market cap) doesn't pay dividends and has often used buybacks, especially during NZIRP times, when he didn't see a better opportunity to invest somewhere else and excess cash from profits didn't yield much in safe deposit accounts.

Buyback is a responsible way for the boards, CEOs and CFOs to manage corporate cash. Large buybacks are often presented to stockholders for a vote.

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Redneck Recession Hits Working-class the Hardest

Recessions usually do; and felt first by the lower quintiles.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley are booming ...

Not quite accurate. It only looks like it because "rising tide lifts all/most boats" and the way the market indexes and passive investment funds work.

Mag Seven now account for 35.4% of S&P 500. That's almost 3x in 2015, when they were 12.3% of SPX - near concentration in financial sector in 2006-7, before 2008 GFC.

62% own stocks. Top 10% own 93% of the value. Top 1% own 50% of the value.

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#9 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-08-09 12:01 AM
This deal ends 35 years of fighting.

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Something about word "nuclear" is always getting some people all hyper and buggered.

The premise of the article is idiotic - that "This should stop before an arms race, atomic terrorism or even nuclear war results."

"This" being R&D of nuclear energy for peaceful and safe(r) nuclear plants and reactors. As if any of that will result in (new?) "arms race, atomic terrorism or even nuclear war."

On the contrary, the new reactors are designed to be safe from exactly the ills author describes, that previous designs and plants were susceptible to, and move from costly and un-safe LWR into multiple solutions that have nothing to do with "arms race" because they don't depend on "enriched" U-235 or Pu-239.

For example, 30 safe CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactors are currently deployed worldwide - 19 in Canada, 4 in Korea, 18 (16-modified) in India, 2 in China, 2 in Romania, etc.

FTA: |------- ... Biden also gave nearly $2 billion to TerraPower, a nuclear energy venture founded by billionaire Bill Gates, for a similar but larger "fast" reactor that also is touted for export. Experts say this inevitably would entail far greater plutonium extraction, even though the company denies any intention to do so. The U.S. Department of Energy also has funded the American branch of Terrestrial Energy, which seeks to build exotic "molten salt" reactors that use liquid rather than solid nuclear fuel. ...
-------|

LFT/thorium MSRs (Malten Salt Reactors) are hardly "exotic" - they burn ALL nuclear fuel, some MSR designs go back 60+ years (one went "live" at Oak Ridge NL, TN in 1965) - and newer U-Pu "fast reactors" designs depend on cheap repurposed fuel that can be "extracted" from spent nuclear rods used in now-predominant LWRs, at the same time helping solve problem of storing the accumulated "nuclear waste."

Author "instead" is pushing for vague "... new reactor types that use tiny particles of coated fuel, which can bolster resistance to both accidents and plutonium extraction" (IOW, he means tristructural isotopic coated-fuel particles / TRISO CFP, which are also safe) ... but fails to mention that they also require processed uranium in UCO or UO2 (or Pu), and that TRISO-based reactors emit l2x-15x of SNF (Spent Nuclear Fuel) per unit of energy produced than a typical LWR. This creates several problems of both pre-processing and post-processing of radioactive materials, not to mention the total cost and radiation safety outside of reactor time, which also reduces the time the fuel can be stored and/or transported.

Different designs have different immediate and lifetime cost structures, and issues of operational and storage/transport safety, emissions, etc., so may need to be balanced depending on environment. But once built (amortized) they can produce immense amount of clean cheap energy.

Some of these companies are public or planning to go public via SPACs... Few, like Oklo (NYSE:OKLO), look like "vaporware" with nothing but slick PR and gov't ties. Be careful if you want to invest in them - remember a slew of "renewable energy" companies that spectacularly went bust.

There have been R&D funded by the US and other governments (Germany, UK et al) on improving all these designs, including bipartisan in the US (see above), so the author pushing the panic button because Trump admin (just like Biden admin before him) chose to fund some R&D outside of his fav solution, using "arms race, atomic terrorism or even nuclear war" rhetoric is nonsensical and plain scaremongering, playing on people's fear of "Nukes!" like use of "depleted uranium" in armor-piercing shells.

Not cool.
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#4 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-07-28 10:21 AM
How dare they use math. --- #3 math?

Yes, math - algorithms that adapt to variations of supply and demand.

These aren't free market principles. This is no different than a social scoring system. Earning or lising points because government wants you to behave a certain way.

This is EXACTLY "free market principles" - Delta is not the government and can't force you to buy anything, only incentivize you by cheaper prices or upgrades when supply exceeds demand and they have open seats to sell [for marginal profit], or raise prices when seats are in short supply and demand exceeds supply.

|------- If passed, the law would allow anyone to sue companies found unfairly using AI, lawmakers explained in what's called a "one-sheet." That could mean charging customers higher prices - based on "how desperate a customer is for a product and the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay" - or paying employees lower wages - based on "their financial status, personal associations, and demographics."

Hepner pushed lawmakers to support the legislation... suggesting that could help "restore fair, transparent, and predictable pricing." Otherwise, "there is no such thing as a good deal when every consumer is charged a different price"
-------|

Really? What is "a good deal" to him? "One size/price/wage fits all" is a "good deal"?

More [class] lawsuits and/or government interference and regulations based on someone's "perception" of being "gouged" by "predatory" airlines or employers that take into account education, experience (demographics), work history, mental capacity, etc.?

That will only raise costs and, correspondingly, prices for everyone.

|------- Delta denied that its AI system used personalized data for individualized pricing. Instead, it apparently relies on AI to forecast demand for certain flights... factors like... customer demand, and competitive offers that perhaps that customer is known to be weighing also influence the AI's pricing, which lawmakers and critics may be interpreting as individualized pricing.

Delta said: "There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized offers based on personal information or otherwise. A variety of market forces drive the dynamic pricing model that's been used in the global industry for decades, with new tech simply streamlining this process." -------|

This is just an extension of what Sen. Warren and Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden tried last year, to blame Kroger and/or other grocers or companies in other industries (like real estate/rent management company RealPage, etc.) that used tech and math ("algorithmic pricing" / "dynamic pricing") for so-called "algorithmic collusion" (aka "hi-tech price fixing") and "gouging" ("corporate greed") while in reality it usually benefits both the consumers and companies, e.g.:

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#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-18 07:59 PM
t aside, why might have the IPO stock price plunge by almost 50%?

1. WS axiom: "Buy on the rumor (hype), sell on the news."

SPACs usually trade around initial $10, until they find a "reverse merger" target. PEW has run up to $21.40 once they learned that merger will happen, on nothing more than Trump Jr being on the board of merger target.

2. It dropped back only to "initial" $10 by Friday (and another 8% this morning) so not really a huge flop, considering that company has no sales, weird financials (even for a SPAC), and no real business or potential competitive advantage relative to other, established online-only or mixed BaM firearm sellers.

Essentially they will be burning money they raised (just like Trump Media / DJT) and may eventually go the "Bitcoin/crypto treasury" model route (just like DJT recently did) which has become a popular way to boost the stock for companies whose business dried up or has never been there, i.e., scams. That usually causes the spike in stock price, just like during dot-com bubble adding ".com" to name of companies temporarily boosted the price... until people figured out that it was the sign of failed business and prices of many newly minted .com's started to fall rapidly.

Some of the "investors" may be waiting for this or similar event to exit on a spike, leaving new buyers with losses.

Most "blank check" speculators know that most SPACs eventually go bust, but keep playing the game hoping for "greater fools" to sell to.

3. In any case, Don Jr has 300K of free stock, which may be time-restricted, but still nothing to sneeze at for lending a no-business company a brand name. If he can sell any of them before the bust, it's pure profit.

If anything, the lackluster "reception" of PEW may mean that people are on to the grift, that "TRUMP" sheen is starting to fade, and their grift will have fewer opportunities like this, to scam the "investors" in the brand.

Like father, like sons.
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#28 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-07-13 10:07 AM
For example while they claimed they were going eliminate private property they never did especially for the elite Germans.

Yeah, read the Mises.org link about that - it explains why they "never did" that, and "total control" didn't mean "total ownership" as communism/Marxism demanded - their socialism was different from Marxism. And even in Soviet Union they "never eliminated private property, especially for the elite Russians." And shortly after the Great Revolution of 1917, they had to institute "New Economic Policy / NEP," which went well beyond even National Socialism in allowing private property and commerce to save the communist economy from ruin.

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The 25 points program of NSDAP (1920) - was it "socialist" enough?

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***
|----- Consider these quotes from Joseph Goebbels:

"Socialism is the ideology of the future." - ... in Goebbels: A Biography

"The bourgeoisie has to yield to the working class ... Whatever is about to fall should be pushed. We are all soldiers of the revolution. We want the workers' victory over filthy lucre. That is socialism." - in "Doctor Goebbels: His Life and Death"

"We are socialists, because we see in socialism, that means, in the fateful dependence of all folk comrades upon each other, the sole possibility for the preservation of our racial genetics and thus the re-conquest of our political freedom and for the rejuvenation of the German state. - "Why We Are Socialists?" Der Angriff (The Attack), July 16, 1928

"We are not a charitable institution but a Party of revolutionary socialists." - Der Angriff editorial, May 27, 1929

"Capitalism assumes unbearable forms at the moment when the personal purposes that it serves run contrary to the interest of the overall folk. It then proceeds from things and not from people. Money is then the axis around which everything revolves. It is the reverse with socialism. The socialist worldview begins with the folk and then goes over to things. Things are made subservient to the folk; the socialist puts the folk above everything, and things are only means to an end." - "Capitalism," Der Angriff, July 15, 1929

"In 1918 there was only one task for the German socialist: to keep the weapons and defend German socialism." - "Capitalism," Der Angriff, July 15, 1929

"To be a socialist means to let the ego serve the neighbour, to sacrifice the self for the whole. In its deepest sense socialism equals service." - diary notes (1926)

"The lines of German socialism are sharp, and our path is clear. We are against the political bourgeoisie, and for genuine nationalism! We are against Marxism, but for true socialism!" - Those ---- Nazis: Why Are We Socialists? (1932)

"We are socialists because we see the social question as a matter of necessity and justice for the very existence of a state for our people, not a question of cheap pity or insulting sentimentality. The worker has a claim to a living standard that corresponds to what he produces." - Those ---- Nazis: Why Are We Socialists? (1932)

"England is a capitalist democracy. Germany is a socialist people's state." - "Englands Schuld" (the speech is not dated, but likely was given in 1939)

"Because we are socialists we have felt the deepest blessings of the nation, and because we are nationalists we want to promote socialist justice in a new Germany." - Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

"The sin of liberal thinking was to overlook socialism's nation-building strengths, thereby allowing its energies to go in anti-national directions." - Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

"To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole. Socialism is in its deepest sense service." - as quoted in "Escape from Freedom," Erich Fromm

"We are a workers' party because we see in the coming battle between finance and labor the beginning and the end of the structure of the twentieth century. We are on the side of labor and against finance. . . The value of labor under socialism will be determined by its value to the state, to the whole community." - Those ---- Nazis: Why Are We Socialists? (1932)

... One can see that in many ways the Nazi spoke much like Karl Marx. ...
-----|
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#14 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-09 02:53 PM
It's just hilarious that you never pass up the chance to infer that Nazis were ever really socialists.
It's like you don't know that was a propaganda ploy in the name.

TL;DR: There is ton of indisputable evidence that Nazi were, in fact, "really socialist" which the fans of [concept of benevolent] "socialism" choose to deny:

Joseph Goebbels himself wrote many articles and books detailing why NSDAP ideology was truly socialist** ... but not Marxist.

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Trump's Finances Were Shaky -- Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback

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#76 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-07-01 12:14 PM
Like everyone else you operate under the presumption that this is about Trump. It isn't.

Read what I posted. Read the links. This IS about Trump! Trump IS ALL ABOUT TRUMP!

This is simply a thread to celebrate a peace deal which will result in fewer people being killed

Now you sound like Putin's b**t-boy Tucker Carlson... Again, read what I posted and get familiar with the subject you post about... Nothing in this charade is about "fewer people being killed" just because this sham is called a "peace agreement" - just as Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our times" pact lead to WWII, not "fewer people being killed."

Don't keep embarrassing yourself with knee-jerk reactions. Try to read and think... before "celebrating."
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#19 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-06-30 07:54 AM
See. It can be done. Just pretend it was the UK that mediated this.

Or you can pretend that Trump mediated this... just like he claims to have "mediated" the end of Operation Sindoor (India-Pakistan skirmish) which PM Modi absolutely, positively rejects - there was no 'perfect call' and ceasefire was negotiated by MoD's of both countries.

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"We take the solar power that we collect from the sun with solar panels, and we take that energy and put it into a set of diodes that turn it back into light," Bhatt said. "That light goes into a fiber where there's a laser, which then lets us point that down to the ground."

Not a new concept - ask 'Willard Whyte'.

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Germany -- 845 (10.5%) -- s/b Germany -- 845 (5.7%)
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#4 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-06-19 09:53 AM
This is just an after affect of Biden seizing Russian assets and giving them to Ukraine.
No nation can be the reserve currency and just take other Nations money because you don't like them.

1. It's not "Biden seizing", it's G7 freezing Russian assets / funds, most of which have been in European banks at the time (in whatever acceptable "designated" international currency) more than 3 years ago - USD actually went up 20% in March-August 2022, after G7 "froze" the assets. Euroclear alone is holding vast majority of funds, in euros, EUR195B.

2. ~$300B is a tiny amount of even USD daily trade / transaction volume, and it's earning interest until G7 decides what to do with it. So far Ukraine only received about EUR1B from accrued interest on these funds. Recent Euroclear disbursement of ~$3.4B to Russian investors was controversial, to say the least.
"If it is returned to Russia, it will be converted into tanks, missiles, drones, training of new troops. The world... must demonstrate that unlawful war brings irreversible financial consequences."

3. Until Trump started openly stating that he wants lower USD (to help US exports and make imports more expensive - "lower trade deficit"!) and lower interest rates (which would also lower USD value) - and to "make the US crypto capital of the world" (of course, nothing to do with his own crypto grifts) - USD was in range of 100-108 for ; it dropped sharply since 110 in January 2025 to 98 this week.

IOW, this nonsense has absolutely nothing to do with USD being a "reserve currency" and its exchange rate.

I understand you want to tie anything that happens here economically to "Russia / Putin have been 'treated badly' by the big bad US / West / NATO" and this is all "Biden's fault" but this one is craziest one I've heard.

.

#8 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2025-06-19 03:13 PM
Expect more wars because all America has left to sell is weaponry - and its the absolute best but it's really all we produce anymore.

How so? In absolute $$ terms we are only behind China in manufacturing:

Manufacturing by country (2023/2024, in ~$$B, % of global manufacturing output):
China ---- 4658 (31.6%)
USA ------ 2497 (15.9%)
Germany -- 845 (10.5%)
Japan ---- 818 (5.5%)
India ---- 461 (3.1%)
S Korea -- 416 (2.8%)
Mexico --- 361 (2.4%)
Italy ---- 355 (2.4%)
UK ------- 354 (2.4%)
France --- 334 (2.3%)

Brazil --- 290 (2.0%)
Indonesia . 256 (1.7%)
Russia --- 252 (1.7%)
Turkey --- 215 (1.5%)
Ireland -- 207 (1.4%)

But wait, there is more! USA has much smaller population than China... and much smaller labor force... and US manufacturing sector now employs only 8.5% (12.8M) of US total labor force, while China's manufacturing employs more than 120M / 29% of total labor force! Yet US produces more than half of China's manufacturing output. Companies is other countries (including China) are buying what we manufacture, and companies here are buying what they (we) need for resale or for integrating into value-add products.

By normalized metrics, US manufacturing output is second to none!

For comparison, Vietnam manufacturing sector is 21% of their total labor force, Turkey is at 20%, Germany - 19%, Iran - 18%, Japan and SKorea - 16%, Russia and Indonesia - 14%, Ukraine - 13%, India, Brazil and Argentina - 12%, Canada, UK, Singapore, Netherlands and Israel - 9%...
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#21 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2025-06-19 02:28 PM
Netanyahu refuses to allow Americans to leave Israel.
He needs Americans as human shields.
Unfortunately Israel puts them in the middle of civilians.

"Zionist monsters" closed Israeli airspace for no other reason than to keep Americans in as "human shields"... because Iran cares?

Do we really need to keep lying to ourselves and make s**t up or repost every laughably stupid, easily disproved disinfo from eX-Twitter, Instagram, YT, Iranian and Russian propaganda websites** about Netanyahu / Israel / "Zionism" / Jews, only to feed confirmation bias and "keep the hate alive"?

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Iran Years Away from Nukes, Not Seeking Them

'Now, after days of Israeli airstrikes, US intelligence officials believe that so far, Israel may have set back Iran's nuclear program by only a matter of months, according to one of those people, a US official.

The article contradicts itself on so many levels - we're to understand that:
1. Iran is not "seeking nuclear weapons"...
2. But if they do... they are "years away from them"...
3. But if they are not "years away from them" then the Israelis have only done enough damage (as of June 17th) to "set back Iran's program by only a matter of months"...

And article's different unnamed "experts" say completely different things, some of them are "US intelligence officials" (are these "old" or "new / MAGA" officials, like "Russian asset" DNI Tulsi Gabbard ?) whose views are likely more colored by their attitude toward Israel rather than Iran's program etc. etc.

Real life:

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#12 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-06-17 05:12 PM
So "we" are at war with Iran now?

#13 | Posted by truthhurts at 2025-06-17 05:55 PM
not even 5 months in and war

I am not sure I'd call it a "war" as much as it is [attempt at] potential "regime change" ... should TPTB "choose to accept it" and not TACO.

.

#14 | Posted by Corky at 2025-06-17 05:58 PM
A war he started when he pulled the Sanctions off of Iran... prolly as yet another favor to Vlad.

Vlad did congratulate Trump on his birthday, and used that call to talk about "dangers of nuclear war" in Middle East. Vlad asked him to stop Israel from attacking his buddy Ayatollah - which Trump failed to do - and just a day ago Trump was thinking aloud about Vlad being a mediator of "Cease Fire" between Israel and Iran...

Now that this plan went up in smoke and IAF and Mossad "control the vertical and horizontal" in the air and on the ground in Tehran after decapitating IRGC and Iran's High Command and Ayatollah in "hiding" (if he wants to know where his military leaders are, and vice versa, they can call Tehran's temporary local Mossad HQ branch for info), Trump changed the course and the tone from "We are not involved at all" and is running fast to get in front of the parade and take the credit for possible "regime change" that will finish rearranging ME in the right direction, without Iranian Islamists and Russia causing trouble.

This was offered to Biden more than once but he and his team kept blinders on and insisted on Israel / Netanyahu to "take the win" and continued to pressure Israel to make more and concessions to Hamas, who saw the weakness and kept stalling and changing demands... while Israel kept almost singlehandedly dismantling Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar al-Shari'a in Yemen, and al-Assad's Iranian and Russian support in Syria, eventually chasing Syrian Hezbollah, Bashar and Vlad out of Syria.

Biden could've been a hero and take credit, if his team had a little nerve, courage, sense and imagination. Just like he could if he'd ignored Vlad's phony "WWIII red lines" in Ukraine. Putin-Trump channel messenger boy Tucker Carlson is attempting to do that "one weird trick" now.

Had Biden gone with the plan A, we might not have had the TACO disaster "to kick around anymore" now.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the only thing Trump really has ever done well is choosing his enemies. "A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

Happy International Panic Day
Happy International Day for Countering Hate Speech
Happy International Sushi Day
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