I know a lot of westerners living in Japan, and they have talked about a museum there in which the display says that the U.S. “tricked” Japan into invading. A few of those guys whom I met in the past even swallowed that idea, perhaps because they are so in love with the country (so am I). I always ...

I remember that there were traders that made a fortune buying up Greek debt when it was heavily discounted during the crisis. Those (risky) bets turned out to be a reverse version of the famous Big Short stories of people who bet against the US housing market in 2006. Fortunes were made. So from the...

FWIW, today's Meet the Press interview with Kristen Welker was far better than the ABC interview. Her questions were very focused and pointed. I think Kristen is twice the interviewer that Terry Moran is. Some of Trump's answers were stunning, even for him. He applied a variation of the "seriou...

ochotona wrote: ↑Sun Apr 20, 2025 9:26 am

glennds wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 10:32 am There's not much the Fed can do with regard to rate policy, but it may have to step in and become the supplemental or replacement buyer of Treasuries in order to prevent runaway yield.

Note to self... if 30-year hits 15% again like in 1980, buy it.

Two words:
Counterparty risk

the pp has been acting worse than a 60/40 as the various other assets get hit along with stocks . so far no protection at all. all that happens is the hole it has to climb out of if things shift gets deeper. it really has been no better and is actually been worse then 25% equities and some 1-3 year...

i think after it got hammered with everything else in 2022 many realized there is no free lunch . there are very real risks today at what are still historically low rates for a rise in rates to be kryptonite to the pp . there are so many new funds that can likely outperform the pp with less risk to...

https://nypost.com/2025/03/30/us-news/jeffrey-goldberg-says-mike-waltz-lied-about-talking-to-him-numbers-dont-just-get-sucked-into-other-phones/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alert&utm_content=20250330?&utm_source=sailthru&lctg=6079ac2e70302947039265ca&a...

How awesome to see Kbg back with an insightful post!
Thank you Vinny for facilitating

Vance suggesting that Greenland would fall under a US protection umbrella if/when the US grabs that territory away from Denmark (either by political or military means) isn't confidence inspiring given that such protection was also pledged to Ukraine. The risk of the US reneging on an agreement at a...

Imagine the dilemma for Jeffrey Goldberg when deliberating what to do after he received these texts. As others have pointed out, he can be commended for his timing and certain aspects of his handling of it. But going public with it at all took enormous courage. But I can't imagine being so personal...

Imagine the dilemma for Jeffrey Goldberg when deliberating what to do after he received these texts. As others have pointed out, he can be commended for his timing and certain aspects of his handling of it. But going public with it at all took enormous courage. But I can't imagine being so personall...

I’m not really going out on a limb in saying that, am I O0 You're going to El Salvador. 😂 ( 😱 ) Nah, those are of course straw definitions. I think one man’s context is another man’s whataboutism. Maybe there’s a spectrum. In my opinion, it’s context provided in order to illuminate hyprocrisy. If y...

Nah, those are of course straw definitions. I think one man’s context is another man’s whataboutism. Maybe there’s a spectrum. In my opinion, it’s context provided in order to illuminate hyprocrisy. If you thought Clinton’s emails were no big deal (like Bernie Sanders), but are outraged by Waltz’ m...

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history! ;) And you were okay with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having a server in a bathroom. Is this an example of the term "whataboutism"? Well, at least it’s clear that using nongovernmental means of communication has a precedence. S...

MarketIfTouched wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 3:13 pm

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history!

And you were okay with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having a server in a bathroom.

Is this an example of the term "whataboutism"?

I’m assuming that long post was intended to refer to Walz but Waltz was used. Could that be an indication it was written by AI? Are you thinking of Tim Walz, the Democrat VP candidate? He is not involved in this. Waltz refers to Michael Waltz, the Trump administration's National Security Advisor. Y...

Just as fascinating as the phenomenon of TDS is the number of people who feel qualified to diagnose it.

As satisfying (salacious?) as some of the reported DOGE findings are, in terms of materiality they are the equivalent of fingernail clippings. It remains to be seen what effect Trump will have on the overall budget, not just in terms of expense management, but also in terms of the revenue side of th...

seajay wrote: ↑Mon Mar 10, 2025 2:03 pm Ukraine is now geared up and producing millions of them, I believe often with explosives provided by Russia in the way of repurposed land mines explosives.

Talk about responding in kind!

dualstow wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2025 7:49 am And with that, the ancient yet youthful creature frugal went back into the hollow
of the magic tree where he dwells, not to be seen again until the next solstice,
or a disturbance in the underpinnings of the Universe…

The closing of an era

… And on a practical level, Zelenskyy has done an admirable job of speaking English as a third language, but I don't think his English is fluent enough to serve him when things start moving at a fast pace and unique idiomatic expressions like "holding cards" start getting thrown around. T...

It would have been tactically advantageous for Zelenskyy to have used an interpreter. It would have allowed him to take control of the pace and effectively buffer, especially useful to prevent people from talking over each other which always seems to escalate tempers. Even in situations like the &qu...

ppnewbie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2025 10:47 am Zelensky will be at the White House today to sell his country to the US.

Not so much

https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/do-tariffs-change-economic-outlook-with-phil-mackintosh In this episode, Kathy Jones and Liz Ann Sonders start out by discussing the latest developments in economic policy and tariffs. They also cover the latest inflation readings and their implications on the dol...

DOGE hasn't found $5000 per US taxpayer. Elon is obviously pretty bad at math. As of tax year 2023, approximately 161 million individual tax returns were filed in the United States. I don't think DOGE is even claiming to have found $5000 x 161E+06 = $0.805 trillion yet. Maybe this is... aspirationa...