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An alternative view on tariffs and the post-WW2 trading environment.
In my view, job #1 is debt service, at this point. Between early COVID relief ($4T) and Bidenomics ($9T), the debt grew out of control. What made it worse was the Fed issued debt at 3-5 year maturities, possibly calculating that they would leave a mess for the next administration. Interest payments are now larger than our defense budget. Refinancing the debt at 4-5% versus 3% would have a compounding effect. DOGE can’t cut enough by itself. We need structural reform of entitlement spending. No one seems to be talking about the Medicaid / Medicare raid used to fund the Inflation Reduction Act / Green New Deal. The country is addicted to debt / consumer spending. We need to return to the fundamentals of capitalism – allocating capital efficiently, and to producing things.
Stanford had players transfer out after Tara retired (and lost Lauren Betts, a #1 overall recruit to UCLA). Supposedly, recruiting picked up last year and Stanford may be reloading.
https://x.com/Silascruzvento/status/1902400733275644072
I see that I wrote Andrew, rather than Anthony Weiner, but….
https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1902383814543909173 definitely in a recession.
https://x.com/justinamash/status/1900649332103106811
I agree with this. This is a terrible CR. Need to take out a bunch of things.
If Andrew Cuomo wins the NYC mayoral race, then it will be him. Other than that, Andrew Weiner? Eliot Spitzer? Out of left field, I would say Lori Lightfoot?
https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1899435520075206950
Real hourly wages for Q3 revised down 1.7%, from a 1.6% gain to a .1% decrease.
https://x.com/FinanceLancelot/status/1898162616427516292
Banks are pulling back on credit. If consumers can’t use debt, consumer spending can’t prop up the economy. Don’t get me wrong, between government deficit spending and personal consumer debt exploding in the last four years, the US economy is not healthy. So things are going to get bad sooner than later. Maybe this shock therapy is what is needed.
https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1898047061813006573
I agree. There’s no way to shrink government / undo the spending blowout without pain. The only question is how quickly it can be done, and how to minimize the pain.
https://x.com/thatsKAIZEN/status/1895619010982719659
Some background:
https://x.com/Eric_Schmitt/status/1895863612905853420
Here’s a Russian/Ukrainian commentator from the UK who changed his mind about the blow-up after watching the full clip.
https://x.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1895610683103781075
At the end of the day, Trump understands how to negotiate with intractable a–holes. You can’t start from hard-line, extreme positions, and you can’t show cracks in your coalition. Here’s the crazy thing, the media is actively trying to undermine the administration’s efforts. They’re again trying to use the Ukrainians to further the Russia Russia Russia narrative. They’re trotting out “diplomatic norms” and stuff that has not worked as what needs to happen. Here’s Kaitlin Collins trying to get Secretary Rubio to denounce the person he will have to negotiate with.
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1895857633611178398
It’s a delicate balancing game, and the media (and Zelenskyy) want the administration to try to bully and demand their way to an agreement. Secretary Rubio does a pretty good job of explaining that the media approved approach doesn’t work in this instance, and hasn’t worked for three years. This is not going to be a fast process, and I tend to want to give some space for the administration to try a new approach.
https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1895506136473960794
And so it begins.
https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1895113314536976768
Crazy. Quarterly inflation during the Biden administration finishes at 4.4%.
https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1895126764189556786
Amazing how much we sacrificed long term growth for short term numbers.
