Best Of

The son of a friend who is moving up the greasy poll of computery recommended I buy shares in Cloudflare (NET) which I did. They've since gone up from around 80p to about £1.80 in less than a year so it sounds like they know what they're doing. So good choice!

Cloudflare is one of those companies that no-one has heard of, but they run the backbone of most of the internet as we know it today. No-one knows of them because they’re business-to-business, as with Nvidia they’re the ones selling shovels in the Internet gold rush.

Pretty much any website with a lot of video or spikes in load is going to be running Cloudflare, apart from Youtube, Amazon, and Facebook, who run their own content delivery networks.

I 've just looked again and they're now£2! They must have heard PB are joining..

The son of a friend who is moving up the greasy poll of computery recommended I buy shares in Cloudflare (NET) which I did. They've since gone up from around 80p to about £1.80 in less than a year so it sounds like they know what they're doing. So good choice!

Cloudflare is one of those companies that no-one has heard of, but they run the backbone of most of the internet as we know it today. No-one knows of them because they’re business-to-business, as with Nvidia they’re the ones selling shovels in the Internet gold rush.

Pretty much any website with a lot of video or spikes in load is going to be running Cloudflare, apart from Youtube, Amazon, and Facebook, who run their own content delivery networks.

You need to be careful though. Akamai owned the CDN space ten years ago and now they are barely an afterthought.

So the war goes on and the key question (does the US stay with it or walk away) remains to be answered. I think my take on the "Summit" was correct. Its main purpose was the event itself. Trump flying in, cameras rolling, world watching, all agog, big big man meeting another big big man, just owning that news cycle, starring front and centre in what other than corruption on a vast scale is what this presidency is all about - the show. That was the point of Alaska.

The big picture is that everyone who matters tacitly agrees that Russia will gain land, the question being how much. The next question is the vexed one of 'USA security guarantee'. USA can't and won't do so (I think); for Europe the USA has to and will do so. I doubt if there can be a ceasefire until that unresolvable question is resolved. By which time I expect more of Ukraine to be in play for Russia.

USA can't give a security guarantee because it flies in the face of its real policy which is to accept Russia's sphere of influence in eastern Europe, the limits to be determined by Europeans, and USA has no intention of being involved in direct USA/Russia conflict.

The detail on the ground is fuzzy, but the big picture is plain.

Any European security guarantee necessary implies that another invasion can be defeated, otherwise it's of little value.

In which case we should just make sure this one is defeated.

Russian journalists complaining about being put up in temporary military accomodation in an arena in Alaska, because there were no hotel rooms for them. Their phones wouldn’t roam because of sanctions, they had one crappy wifi network between them, and most of their connections to sites such as WhatsApp and Telegram were blocked!

https://x.com/bohuslavskakate/status/1956310811921531149

Oh dear. How sad. F**K off.

The word "journalist" is doing a hell of a lot of work there.

The look on “Putin’s” face when all the American “journalists” started shouting their questions over each other, was rather amusing.

Ukranian social media is even more convinced that it was a fake Putin at the meeting, the mannerisms and inflections didn’t seem “right”. Reports that “Putin” gave his long history speech, had his photo taken, and got straight back on his plane cancelling the planned lunch, would also give credence to that theory. The fake “Putin” wouldn’t have the authority to actually agree anything.

Does anyone have a clue which is the actual Putin and which the double (or doubles) ?

Does Putin himself ?

A bit like Charles Gray's Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever.

Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy

“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour

The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.

The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.

The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.

This should NOT be happening”


https://x.com/liamhalligan/status/1956357461226504306?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Wait til it gets to 6%.

Truss supposedly crashed the economy. Yet we’re in a far worse position now and no political will to resolve it.

Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy

“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour

The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.

The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.

The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.

This should NOT be happening”


https://x.com/liamhalligan/status/1956357461226504306?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

Yes. 30 year gilts are well above France and Italy. It says a lot about the long term perspective.

What’s our destiny, rainier Greece or Argentina-of-the-north?

Yes, both of these. Plus the game of asking what 30 year gilts will look like after 6 months of a Reform majority government.

Well we've had no rain since April so it must be the latter.

So the war goes on and the key question (does the US stay with it or walk away) remains to be answered. I think my take on the "Summit" was correct. Its main purpose was the event itself. Trump flying in, cameras rolling, world watching, all agog, big big man meeting another big big man, just owning that news cycle, starring front and centre in what other than corruption on a vast scale is what this presidency is all about - the show. That was the point of Alaska.

The big picture is that everyone who matters tacitly agrees that Russia will gain land, the question being how much. The next question is the vexed one of 'USA security guarantee'. USA can't and won't do so (I think); for Europe the USA has to and will do so. I doubt if there can be a ceasefire until that unresolvable question is resolved. By which time I expect more of Ukraine to be in play for Russia.

USA can't give a security guarantee because it flies in the face of its real policy which is to accept Russia's sphere of influence in eastern Europe, the limits to be determined by Europeans, and USA has no intention of being involved in direct USA/Russia conflict.

The detail on the ground is fuzzy, but the big picture is plain.

Russia has gained land. Whether they gain more or lose some, and to what extent any new borders get recognised, depends on how the war progresses from here. That in turn depends on how much support Ukraine get from America and Europe.

All of the above, and also the position as you've described it, indeed the position as anybody wants to describe it, is unchanged by this performative summit between Trump and Putin. A waste of time for everyone but themselves.