Skip to main content

It has been a while since I posted...it may be while till the next post

Sorry folks, with The Donald in the White House its hard to get very excited about anything political -- I mean the crap he pulls on a daily basis would have normally made the front page of all newspaper for weeks, but because he's so crazy, ignorant and supported by the GOPs own crazies there really is not much to say.

Europe, well Europe is doing OK, at least on the surface.  The Italians finally got a government -- which includes 5 stars -- which is as anti-European as can be, and drafted exit words from Europe and the Euro (plus canceling all Euro-denominated debt..) but thankfully these ideas were not in the final governing agreement (but how far are they below the surface).  France and Germany are trying to get along, with some success, but on one side you've got Germany and on the other, you've got everyone else.  How long till German gets fed-up of paying for everyone (actually that's easy -- as soon as Europe stops buying goods and services in Germany). 

Nevertheless, the Euro is strong (which makes almost no sense) but for America -- which has just announced that its government will have a 3.5% (of GDP) deficit.  Really, lots and lots of money that the Americans will have to print -- so the Euro is looking better and better every day.

The Canadian dollar is going nowhere -- despite oil prices rising nearly 40% in the past 12 months.  IT seems to have (for the first time) no impact on the CAD.  The CAD which for years had a correlation factor with oil prices in the region of 85% -- The CAD was a petro-currency!

But overall its hard to get excited about the whole thing.  America's xenophobic tendencies are screaming louder and louder every day.  The religious right, (not sure why they use the word religious since they seem to love pedophiles, rapists, and thieves).  As long as they get the fulfillment of their "end of days" (no joke several think that the arrival of America's embassy will result in their famed end of day prophecy (go figure).

Anyway, I've moved most of my thoughts to LinkedIn -- these are more articles on specific sectors since I have much less time (or appetite, or interest) in getting excited about the world.


Regards

Old Cranky bastard





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

what people get wrong about tariffs

 The issue is simple. What percentage of the economy is dependent on tariff goods? The truth, is that the US economy is far more closed than people understand. People genuinely believe that all manufacturing has ceased to exist in the United States all given to China on the altar of woke policy the truth can be further from That statement. Only about 15% of US GDP is related to foreign trade. Of that amount, slightly more than half is from Canada in Mexico. And half of that is energy. What that means, is that about 7% of US GDP is tariff dependent. The proof in the pudding, is how little money tariff generates. People think that 30 or 50 billion is a lot it’s not in an economy that has $3 trillion. The impact on the US economy will be less visible but not absent. Inflation hasn’t occurred yet first because tests have hardly started to bite, but more importantly it’s such a small percent of the economy. Now certain things are critical. The rare earth metals from China were critical....

The end of Tesla?

 it takes a special kind of idiot, to think that he can antagonize his entire customer base, and think that it will not impact his business. When Elon Musk went to work for Donald Trump, and created the doge department, he antagonized every liberal, and these people represent 90% of his client base.That’s not a brilliant move. Now Elon Musk is worth hundreds of billions of dollar, so he shouldn’t care a great deal, however, he needs to care because of several other issues. The cyber truck has been a disaster, most have had to be recalled because of defective glue, it’s not a truck, it’s not a car, it’s noisy, relatively uncomfortable, but great as a development platform. What Tesla has learned in making car manufacturing more seamless is truly amazing. The problem was that Elon Musk was so pissed with the Democrats, and with Joe Biden, in particular because of some slight, which were just plain stupid too. By the way, that he decided to support with hundreds of millions of dollar, ...

Trump and Venezuela...

The US now owns Venezuela…and not in a good way.  America is not known for its nation building skills, and yet it now owns the disaster that is Venezuela.   Starvation and exodus are the natural progression.   In addition it will become a haven for narco-terrorists, more so than it already was. I am sure that Trump and his friends really thought that little attack very well…I guess that he will now attack Iran now.