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Upending assumptions – politicalbetting.com

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  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,232
    Some say there is only one true religion.

    Trussism.
  • Options
    YokesYokes Posts: 1,203

    ohnotnow said:


    Harry Cole
    @MrHarryCole
    EXC: November election is off — Sunak eyeing October amid fears over massive global insecurity after US elections.

    Sounds like bollocks to me. 'Massive global insecurity' would surely work in Sunak's favour?
    Or... "Rishi has no idea what to do. October? November? Miveoweberly?"
    Actually fair point. November is clearly the best choice for Sunak - so he's not going to choose November.
    October is clearly a better choice if you want a good election result than November.

    Why would you go a week after the clocks go back, rather than a week before the clocks go back?

    People are more miserable after the clocks change. Its suddenly much darker, greyer, people feel the seasonal change - what kind of lunatic incumbent would choose to voluntarily go to the polls, while behind, after the clock change?

    So Sunak might choose it.
    2 May 👍
    I'm aware of one political party who's candidates think it could be May.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,154

    Some say there is only one true religion.

    Trussism.

    Funny if she loses her seat at the election.
  • Options

    On topic one thing Trump seems to get away with a lot is that by having a lot of drama around him, he avoids talking about some really terrible policy.

    Another one is tariffs: He's advocating a massive tax increase on lower-income and middle-income people. Coffee, phones, everything imported which is nearly everything Americans consume, will be 10% more expensive. It would make inflation automatically way worse. And it has terrible downstream effects: It'll screw any company doing high value-added stuff (for example, if you're making cars you'll have a tariff on many of your components). And it'll also wreck exporters because the countries on the receiving end of the tariffs will reciprocate. It's just an astonishingly bad idea that will have very easily understood negative effects on nearly every voter.

    Writeup by Yglesias: https://www.slowboring.com/p/trumps-middle-class-tax-hike?utm_campaign=email-post&r=f388s&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    I wholeheartedly agree however a carbon tax on imports is one I have come around to thinking is a good idea.

    For too long we've offshored pollution and slapped ourselves on the back for cutting our emissions while importing from countries operating dirtier than we are. That's not environmentally friendly, and if its not necessarily economically sensible either.

    Put a hefty carbon tariff on imports that both encourages RoW to clean up their act and balances the pressures on domestic producers too. If its now cheaper to produce domestically, do so, cleaner than most other nations doing so. If its still cheaper to import, do so.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,154
    edited February 7
    The most interesting article I've read recently.

    "Complex Systems Won’t Survive the Competence Crisis
    Harold Robertson"

    https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/01/complex-systems-wont-survive-the-competence-crisis/
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,245
    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited February 7
    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,232
    Sandpit said:

    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/

    Does it solve the fatal flaw with sports streaming - the lag? In my experience, streams are around 90 seconds to 120 seconds behind real time. Completely ruins the experience as someone in the house/pub knows that the goals have gone in before they are shown on telly.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    There was one gold factory out here that got blacklisted for handling Russian gold. People fleeing Moscow mostly turned their cash into gold and Bitcoin, when it became impossible to get hold of hard currency, and have been trying to liquidate them.

    Hong Kong then took over as the place to change your gold, so perhaps this is what’s behind the Chinese crackdown.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-15/hong-kong-ousts-dubai-as-biggest-hub-for-russian-gold-trading
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    Sandpit said:

    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/

    Does it solve the fatal flaw with sports streaming - the lag? In my experience, streams are around 90 seconds to 120 seconds behind real time. Completely ruins the experience as someone in the house/pub knows that the goals have gone in before they are shown on telly.
    That’s only usually a problem when the match is live on terrestrial TV though. It’s the least of the problems of US sports broadcasting, with matches on any one of dozens of different channels, different channels in different places, and weird local rules such as broadcast blackouts in the cities where matches are being played.

    In the UK, our silly local rule is the 3pm Saturday rule, which does little except teach hardcore fans and gamblers how easy it is to find other sorts of live streams.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,245
    Sandpit said:

    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/

    Disney owns ESPN, doesn't it?

    So this is their thing too.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/

    Disney owns ESPN, doesn't it?

    So this is their thing too.
    Yep. Who will want to keep cable TV when all the sports are on one streamer? Presumably this new service isn’t going to be cheap, but it cuts out a middleman.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    “It’s not that often that you get a unanimous 57-page decision on novel questions of law in 28 days. And you almost never get an opinion of this quality in such a short period of time. I’ve read thousands of judicial opinions in my four decades as a law student and lawyer. Few have been as good as this one.”
    https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1755013712212021673
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    Government ‘does not understand how HS2 will function as railway’
    Parliament’s spending watchdog says cancellation of high-speed line’s northern leg raises ‘urgent questions’
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/07/government-does-not-understand-how-hs2-will-function-as-railway
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    Haley loses to ‘none of the candidates’ in Nevada primary as Biden seals easy win
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/06/nevada-primary-election-biden-haley-win
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,730
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."






  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited February 7
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    Bud Light have now taken to sponsoring the UFC and donating to Trump’s campaign, to try and undo the mess that they created last year. They’ve bought up a whole load of Super Bowl ads as well.

    They’re still not apologising though, for fear of upsetting certain ‘communities’, so Conservative commentators are going off at Trump and Dana White.

    https://x.com/thequartering/status/1755106237362983403?s=61
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Rotten Tomatoes: 88% audience score.
    Budget $128–145 million
    Box office $1.446 billion

    Go woke, make a fortune. ;)
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    You think ther might perhaps have been other reasons ?
    After all, Barbie did OK at the box office.

    I though you had a massive IQ.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    Bud Light have now taken to sponsoring the UFC and donating to Trump’s campaign, to try and undo the mess that they created last year. They’ve bought up a whole load of Super Bowl ads as well.

    They’re still not apologising though, for fear of upsetting certain ‘communities’, so Conservative commentators are going off at Trump and Dana White.

    https://x.com/thequartering/status/1755106237362983403?s=61
    You've got this thing about Bud, proclaiming a 'share price crash' that never happened. At least not for any sane definition of 'crash'.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,673

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    Bud Light have now taken to sponsoring the UFC and donating to Trump’s campaign, to try and undo the mess that they created last year. They’ve bought up a whole load of Super Bowl ads as well.

    They’re still not apologising though, for fear of upsetting certain ‘communities’, so Conservative commentators are going off at Trump and Dana White.

    https://x.com/thequartering/status/1755106237362983403?s=61
    You've got this thing about Bud, proclaiming a 'share price crash' that never happened. At least not for any sane definition of 'crash'.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud
    Even smart people aren't smart all the time.

    And something, I don't know what (the generation gap aspect?), about the war on woke causes otherwise smart people to say and do dumb things.

    Wasn't Musk's purchase of Twitter (which has cost him billions he won't see again) caused by an antiwoke crusade?
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    Bud Light have now taken to sponsoring the UFC and donating to Trump’s campaign, to try and undo the mess that they created last year. They’ve bought up a whole load of Super Bowl ads as well.

    They’re still not apologising though, for fear of upsetting certain ‘communities’, so Conservative commentators are going off at Trump and Dana White.

    https://x.com/thequartering/status/1755106237362983403?s=61
    You've got this thing about Bud, proclaiming a 'share price crash' that never happened. At least not for any sane definition of 'crash'.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud
    New York
    CNN

    Bud Light continues to drag Anheuser-Busch InBev’s bottom line in the United States, but the world’s biggest brewer’s sales rose because of higher prices.

    The company reported a 13.5% decline in third-quarter US revenue per 100 liters, a key measure of beer sales, as an ongoing backlash to Bud Light continues. The brand’s customers turned their backs on Bud Light after the company partnered with a transgender influencer – and then muddled its response.

    AB InBev said that sales to US retailers declined nearly 17% “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.” In response, the company cut deals with wholesalers, including writing checks to distributors, and increasing marketing spend on the brand. But that took a toll on the company’s bottom line, and contributed to a 29% decline in adjusted US earnings.

    Tuesday’s report painted a bleak picture for Bud Light, sales and shipments of which have weakened dramatically since its brief and limited partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney in the spring.

    In the summer, Bud Light lost its long-held top-selling American beer title to rival Modelo. The Constellation-owned brand has been making inroads in the US market for several years as customers switch their tastes to Mexican lagers.

    Sales of Bud Light are still sinking, with volumes down 30% year-over-year for the four weeks ending on October 7, according to NIQ data given to Beer Business Daily newsletter.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/31/investing/bud-light-anheuser-busch-earnings/index.html
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,162
    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    FF43 said:

    kamski said:

    Here's the actual poll:

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/monarchie-acht-prozent-der-deutschen-wuenschen-sich-einen-koenig-a-d4e93300-dd5c-4e9e-a2fd-31b50b6aaa76

    »In einigen europäischen Ländern – wie etwa in Großbritannien – gibt es eine parlamentarische Monarchie, wobei der König oder die Königin – ähnlich wie der Bundespräsident bei uns – keine politische Macht mehr hat, sondern als Staatsoberhaupt nur noch repräsentative Aufgaben wahrnimmt. Fänden Sie es gut, wenn es auch in Deutschland statt des Bundespräsidenten noch einen König oder eine Königin gäbe oder fänden Sie das nicht gut?«

    Translated:
    "In some European countries - such as the UK - there is a parliamentary monarchy, where the king or queen - similar to the federal president in Germany - no longer has any political power, but only fulfils representative tasks as head of state. Would you be in favour of a king or queen instead of a federal president in Germany, or would you be against that?"

    In favour 8%
    Against 89%

    People vote for the status quo everywhere but in monarchies this is somewhat mitigated by monarchy being an inherent nonsense ("It kind of works, so we'll stick with it")
    Looked at in a particular pragmatic way, all dignified, as opposed to efficient, bits of the state are inherent nonsense. In that light, monarchy is no worse than all the others.

    Dignified bits of the state have wide ramifications. One of them would be having buildings like the HoP and Westminster Hall, rather than a conference centre in Barking or Hull, rented by the day, to meet in.
    That's somewhat glosses over the intellectual issue with the monarchy, which is the absence of any requirement for the head of state to be competent or even sane. I do realise you can still end up with someone like Trump in a republic but at least he went through some sort of selection process.

    My theory is that societies with less sophisticated governance tolerated the occasional imbecile as monarch, which was
    a disaster each time it happened, because in the round it was better than constant succession wars. In principle we're better than that now.
    Any election forces a choice - by nature division.

    Any selection ends up with a political placeman and/or a bureaucratic non-entity

    A monarchy may have the occasional harmless fool, but they are a unifying feature that is non partisan and non political
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    Bud Light have now taken to sponsoring the UFC and donating to Trump’s campaign, to try and undo the mess that they created last year. They’ve bought up a whole load of Super Bowl ads as well.

    They’re still not apologising though, for fear of upsetting certain ‘communities’, so Conservative commentators are going off at Trump and Dana White.

    https://x.com/thequartering/status/1755106237362983403?s=61
    You've got this thing about Bud, proclaiming a 'share price crash' that never happened. At least not for any sane definition of 'crash'.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud
    New York
    CNN

    Bud Light continues to drag Anheuser-Busch InBev’s bottom line in the United States, but the world’s biggest brewer’s sales rose because of higher prices.

    The company reported a 13.5% decline in third-quarter US revenue per 100 liters, a key measure of beer sales, as an ongoing backlash to Bud Light continues. The brand’s customers turned their backs on Bud Light after the company partnered with a transgender influencer – and then muddled its response.

    AB InBev said that sales to US retailers declined nearly 17% “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.” In response, the company cut deals with wholesalers, including writing checks to distributors, and increasing marketing spend on the brand. But that took a toll on the company’s bottom line, and contributed to a 29% decline in adjusted US earnings.

    Tuesday’s report painted a bleak picture for Bud Light, sales and shipments of which have weakened dramatically since its brief and limited partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney in the spring.

    In the summer, Bud Light lost its long-held top-selling American beer title to rival Modelo. The Constellation-owned brand has been making inroads in the US market for several years as customers switch their tastes to Mexican lagers.

    Sales of Bud Light are still sinking, with volumes down 30% year-over-year for the four weeks ending on October 7, according to NIQ data given to Beer Business Daily newsletter.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/31/investing/bud-light-anheuser-busch-earnings/index.html
    Look at the charts. The share price did not crash, which is what you claimed. In fact, during the entirety of 2023, it did not go anywhere near it's late 2022 low. And that chart's baseline is $40, not $0
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited February 7
    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,560
    Donald Trump: 'My ongoing legal challenges getting continually laughed out of court are the most embarrassing thing in US politics EVER!'

    Senate Republicans: 'Hold our beer.'

    House Republicans: 'Tch! You think those are embarrassing? Just watch us!'
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,673
    ydoethur said:

    Donald Trump: 'My ongoing legal challenges getting continually laughed out of court are the most embarrassing thing in US politics EVER!'

    Senate Republicans: 'Hold our beer.'

    House Republicans: 'Tch! You think those are embarrassing? Just watch us!'

    Just as long as that beer isn't Bud Woke.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,162
    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Matt Goodwin
    @GoodwinMJ

    "In 2016 the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox, then dean of the cathedral, said it had converted 200 asylum seekers in four years. Yet he couldn’t think of a single example where somebody who had already gained British citizenship converted from Islam to Christianity"."

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1754985317482840137

    Wow sorry what the hell has this to do with anything? You think people who live here should have to convert, never heard so much bollocks in my life
    That’s not it at all

    People come here and convert and then claim asylum on the basis for fear of religious persecution. They get it and three never go to a church again
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,162
    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Matt Goodwin
    @GoodwinMJ

    "In 2016 the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox, then dean of the cathedral, said it had converted 200 asylum seekers in four years. Yet he couldn’t think of a single example where somebody who had already gained British citizenship converted from Islam to Christianity"."

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1754985317482840137

    Wow sorry what the hell has this to do with anything? You think people who live here should have to convert, never heard so much bollocks in my life
    That’s not it at all

    People come here and convert and then claim asylum on the basis for fear of religious persecution. They get it and three never go to a church again
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,560

    ydoethur said:

    Donald Trump: 'My ongoing legal challenges getting continually laughed out of court are the most embarrassing thing in US politics EVER!'

    Senate Republicans: 'Hold our beer.'

    House Republicans: 'Tch! You think those are embarrassing? Just watch us!'

    Just as long as that beer isn't Bud Woke.
    Well, it's certainly not Bud Wiser.
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,162
    Yokes said:

    ohnotnow said:


    Harry Cole
    @MrHarryCole
    EXC: November election is off — Sunak eyeing October amid fears over massive global insecurity after US elections.

    Sounds like bollocks to me. 'Massive global insecurity' would surely work in Sunak's favour?
    Or... "Rishi has no idea what to do. October? November? Miveoweberly?"
    Actually fair point. November is clearly the best choice for Sunak - so he's not going to choose November.
    October is clearly a better choice if you want a good election result than November.

    Why would you go a week after the clocks go back, rather than a week before the clocks go back?

    People are more miserable after the clocks change. Its suddenly much darker, greyer, people feel the seasonal change - what kind of lunatic incumbent would choose to voluntarily go to the polls, while behind, after the clock change?

    So Sunak might choose it.
    2 May 👍

    I'm aware of one political party who's candidates think it could be May.
    To replace Sunak?

    No change… strong and stable …
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,851
    edited February 7

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    FF43 said:

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
    That’s also why sanctions are such an important part of the Western response. Over time, Russian business will decline thanks to people getting out of the country, and more banks will make the decision to shun Russian money.

    The reason for the talk about gold, is that it’s been almost impossible for Russians to get hold of hard currency since the war started, except for the black-market oil sales to China and India.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,851
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Agree. The numbers don't lie. Getting the American working class to stop buying a brand of tasteless beer is MAGA's greatest. achievement. Anheuser would not have been able to do this simply through poor marketing choices.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,714
    edited February 7
    edit
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411

    So Gary Lineker is using twitter less because it is so toxic. He hasn't the brainpower to realise that if he stopped using it altogether it would be even less toxic. His tweets are the cause of a lot of tocixity as he deliberately stirs up trouble.

    TwiX is an absolute cesspool now. You think Linekar is the problem? OK, lets take off all the people like him and leave it to the conspiracy nutters, the alt-right, the lunatics etc etc.

    And see if it is less toxic.
    He is one of the lunatics.... ;)
    Lineker is a twat, the fact others are twats doesn't change that.
  • Options
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    Result? -


    "In July 2021, two sequels were confirmed to be in development with the same creative team of Green, McBride, Sattler and Teems on board. The first of these sequels, The Exorcist: Deceiver, was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on April 18, 2025. After the poor reception of Believer, sources from The Hollywood Reporter claimed there would almost certainly be some degree of creative re-think for the next two films, and that Green recently expressed some doubt about his participation[ In January 2024, Green stepped down from Deceiver, and the film was removed from the release schedule shortly after."
    You think ther might perhaps have been other reasons ?
    After all, Barbie did OK at the box office.

    I though you had a massive IQ.
    I think is clear Leon is mistaking the alcoholic units he drinks a week with his IQ which is closer to his shoe size.
  • Options
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Donald Trump: 'My ongoing legal challenges getting continually laughed out of court are the most embarrassing thing in US politics EVER!'

    Senate Republicans: 'Hold our beer.'

    House Republicans: 'Tch! You think those are embarrassing? Just watch us!'

    Just as long as that beer isn't Bud Woke.
    Well, it's certainly not Bud Wiser.
    Presumably Dudweiser then.
  • Options
    kamskikamski Posts: 4,338
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    I don't know. People were complaining about Disney being politically correct in the 90s. 4 years ago 'political correctness' got replaced with 'woke'. Their share price seems to have hit an all-time high in March 2021. Need a bit more evidence than some shaky correlation.

    AFAIK the only recent Disney thing I watched was the Ahsoka series from 2023, which I found OK. Main problem - just too slow, and not much story to care about. Don't think that can be blamed on 'woke', but I'm sure people will find a way.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    .

    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    FF43 said:

    kamski said:

    Here's the actual poll:

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/monarchie-acht-prozent-der-deutschen-wuenschen-sich-einen-koenig-a-d4e93300-dd5c-4e9e-a2fd-31b50b6aaa76

    »In einigen europäischen Ländern – wie etwa in Großbritannien – gibt es eine parlamentarische Monarchie, wobei der König oder die Königin – ähnlich wie der Bundespräsident bei uns – keine politische Macht mehr hat, sondern als Staatsoberhaupt nur noch repräsentative Aufgaben wahrnimmt. Fänden Sie es gut, wenn es auch in Deutschland statt des Bundespräsidenten noch einen König oder eine Königin gäbe oder fänden Sie das nicht gut?«

    Translated:
    "In some European countries - such as the UK - there is a parliamentary monarchy, where the king or queen - similar to the federal president in Germany - no longer has any political power, but only fulfils representative tasks as head of state. Would you be in favour of a king or queen instead of a federal president in Germany, or would you be against that?"

    In favour 8%
    Against 89%

    People vote for the status quo everywhere but in monarchies this is somewhat mitigated by monarchy being an inherent nonsense ("It kind of works, so we'll stick with it")
    Looked at in a particular pragmatic way, all dignified, as opposed to efficient, bits of the state are inherent nonsense. In that light, monarchy is no worse than all the others.

    Dignified bits of the state have wide ramifications. One of them would be having buildings like the HoP and Westminster Hall, rather than a conference centre in Barking or Hull, rented by the day, to meet in.
    That's somewhat glosses over the intellectual issue with the monarchy, which is the absence of any requirement for the head of state to be competent or even sane. I do realise you can still end up with someone like Trump in a republic but at least he went through some sort of selection process.

    My theory is that societies with less sophisticated governance tolerated the occasional imbecile as monarch, which was
    a disaster each time it happened, because in the round it was better than constant succession wars. In principle we're better than that now.
    Any election forces a choice - by nature division.

    Any selection ends up with a political placeman and/or a bureaucratic non-entity

    A monarchy may have the occasional harmless fool, but they are a unifying feature that is non partisan and non political
    Not if the last couple of days on PB is anything to go by, they don't.
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Of more interest to Disney, they’re part of the new consortium launching an American sports streaming service, alongside Warner and Fox. This will give access to pretty much every televised US sport, and is bad news for the old-fashioned cable providers for whom live sports are the only thing keeping millions subscribed.

    https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/warner-fox-espn-streaming-spots-joint-venture-1235900161/

    Disney owns ESPN, doesn't it?

    So this is their thing too.
    Yep. Who will want to keep cable TV when all the sports are on one streamer? Presumably this new service isn’t going to be cheap, but it cuts out a middleman.
    Also the WWE, just prior to the latest scandal with Vince McMahon, moved from cable to Netflix in a massive deal.

    The WWE will survive the fallout and thrive. It is unlikely the McMahon family will though.
  • Options
    jamesdoylejamesdoyle Posts: 659
    So, Haley got between 66-33 by None of the Above in Nevada.
    I'm sure that there were people on her saying she was going to easily beat Trump to the nomination because she was such a great speaker.
    And then they said all she needed was for the other candidates to get out so she could consolidate the non-Trump vote.
    Oh well, maybe she'll surprise on the upside.
  • Options
    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411
    Sandpit said:

    FF43 said:

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
    That’s also why sanctions are such an important part of the Western response. Over time, Russian business will decline thanks to people getting out of the country, and more banks will make the decision to shun Russian money.

    The reason for the talk about gold, is that it’s been almost impossible for Russians to get hold of hard currency since the war started, except for the black-market oil sales to China and India.
    Yet the Russian economy is growing and forecasts for it have been upgraded.

    https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/274111736/imf-improves-russias-2024-gdp-growth-forecast
  • Options
    Christian Horner is expected to face hours of intense questioning on Friday from the King’s Counsel appointed by Red Bull Austria to investigate claims of inappropriate, controlling behaviour towards a female staff member at the Formula 1 team.

    The hearing is due to take place at Oracle Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, although insiders are now speculating that it could be moved, given the widespread media interest. One source suggested the independent lawyer’s central London offices could prove the preferred option.

    But Horner, 50, the head of Oracle Red Bull Racing, will be interrogated in detail over the allegations that form the basis of the grievance made against him to the team’s parent company in Austria.

    The Times understands the woman has already been questioned as part of the process, with her claims thought to involve evidence she had originally passed to the head of human resources at Red Bull’s Salzburg base.

    Horner, who was continuing to operate in his role as team principal on Tuesday, has publicly denied the accusations. He has appointed lawyers of his own to defend his position.

    But Red Bull Austria confirmed on Monday that it was taking the matter “extremely seriously”, appointing an independent barrister to investigate the complaint.

    The outcome will determine if the man who has masterminded Red Bull’s phenomenal success on the track — the team have claimed seven F1 drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles in the period since 2010 — remains in the post he has occupied since 2005.

    The investigating KC is expected to take the weekend to review the evidence before advising the team’s owners of the action that needs to be taken early next week.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/christian-horner-accused-of-inappropriate-behaviour-by-female-colleague-60bh6w53s

    If Horner is found guilty then Verstappen should be stripped of all his titles #TaintedTitles
  • Options
    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,601

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    KCIII dies in January, election postponed until February?
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,030
    Mr. Eagles, there's still no detail whatsoever regarding what the allegations actually are...
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,541
    edited February 7

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early. What's a few seats here and there and if Charles is fighting fit later this year, inflation continues to trend down, we have had a few rate cuts...well who knows.

    Will likely be the thinking.

    And that's to say nothing of legacy. Not in the immediate future sense, but in time to come scrolling through the longest-serving PM lists with your personal wiki advisor on your AVP. By that time you might decide that you want to ask Rishi a few questions over a cup of tea which I'm sure the technology will be up to by then.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
  • Options

    Mr. Eagles, there's still no detail whatsoever regarding what the allegations actually are...

    He's been accused of inappropriate controlling behaviour by a female employee.
  • Options
    kamskikamski Posts: 4,338
    viewcode said:

    ...

    Andy_JS said:

    DougSeal said:


    https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-rishi-sunak-general-election-keir-starmer-12593360?postid=7191818#liveblog-body

    Shortly after Liz Truss and co took to the stage to launch the new Popular Conservatism - or "PopCon" - movement, pitching itself as an anti-woke, anti-green, anti-elite, anti-immigration voice of the voter, my phone buzzed with a message from a very disgruntled MP.

    "What everyone is privately thinking is that the rules must change on selection of the party leader," said the former minister. "But no-one will initiate, so our party drifts to the right.

    "The selection of leader must return to parliamentarians, so that these subtribes won't schmooze our base with their populist message."

    In the hall in Westminster, where Ms Truss led the PopCon rally, other MPs such as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg professed their loyalty to the ex-PM, insisting this was about the battle for ideas and taking power back from elites - in this case Davos man or Supreme Court judges - and giving it back to the people.

    But for many of his colleagues, these groups are only serving to push away some of their most centrist voters, making the party look more divided and leaving Rishi Sunak looking weak.

    And it won't have gone unnoticed with many of you that there is a certain irony that the most unpopular prime minister of modern times, Ms Truss, is now reinventing herself as the leader of the Popular Conservatives after bombing with the vast majority of the voters in her time as leader, according to polls

    I can't think of any reason why the selection of leader should return to parliamentarians, other than that parliamentarians think they're more important than everyone else.
    Quite. It's a remarkable phrase in its pungent reek of entitlement, and complete lack of self-awareness.
    It's called parliamentary democracy. If you don't like it campaign for a change to our constitution.
    Where is it written into the stone tablets of parliamentary democracy that a party leader must be elected solely by its MPs? I think a far better system would be for MPs to elect a shortlist of 3 or more to send to members. Most of the more questionable leadership choices have been caused by better candidates being held back from the membership round.
    I think the leader should be voted for by the people standing for election in the next GE. They have skin in the game.
    More importantly - when they are not just choosing the party leader but the Prime Minister, then the MPs should decide. It's one of the things they are elected to do. Anything else is absurd and antidemocratic. If they aren't deciding on the Prime Minister but just leader of their party they can give the responsibility to whoever they want, if they aren't up to it themselves.
  • Options
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    https://metro.co.uk/2023/07/24/barbie-backlash-too-woke-anti-men-19179331/
  • Options

    Christian Horner is expected to face hours of intense questioning on Friday from the King’s Counsel appointed by Red Bull Austria to investigate claims of inappropriate, controlling behaviour towards a female staff member at the Formula 1 team.

    The hearing is due to take place at Oracle Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, although insiders are now speculating that it could be moved, given the widespread media interest. One source suggested the independent lawyer’s central London offices could prove the preferred option.

    But Horner, 50, the head of Oracle Red Bull Racing, will be interrogated in detail over the allegations that form the basis of the grievance made against him to the team’s parent company in Austria.

    The Times understands the woman has already been questioned as part of the process, with her claims thought to involve evidence she had originally passed to the head of human resources at Red Bull’s Salzburg base.

    Horner, who was continuing to operate in his role as team principal on Tuesday, has publicly denied the accusations. He has appointed lawyers of his own to defend his position.

    But Red Bull Austria confirmed on Monday that it was taking the matter “extremely seriously”, appointing an independent barrister to investigate the complaint.

    The outcome will determine if the man who has masterminded Red Bull’s phenomenal success on the track — the team have claimed seven F1 drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles in the period since 2010 — remains in the post he has occupied since 2005.

    The investigating KC is expected to take the weekend to review the evidence before advising the team’s owners of the action that needs to be taken early next week.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/christian-horner-accused-of-inappropriate-behaviour-by-female-colleague-60bh6w53s

    If Horner is found guilty then Verstappen should be stripped of all his titles #TaintedTitles

    Far more relevant would be RedBull breeching the spending cap. What the principle gets up to in a non-racing capacity has zero impact on Verstappen.
  • Options

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    KCIII dies in January, election postponed until February?
    Would require an act of Parliament?
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,714
    edited February 7

    Christian Horner is expected to face hours of intense questioning on Friday from the King’s Counsel appointed by Red Bull Austria to investigate claims of inappropriate, controlling behaviour towards a female staff member at the Formula 1 team.

    The hearing is due to take place at Oracle Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, although insiders are now speculating that it could be moved, given the widespread media interest. One source suggested the independent lawyer’s central London offices could prove the preferred option.

    But Horner, 50, the head of Oracle Red Bull Racing, will be interrogated in detail over the allegations that form the basis of the grievance made against him to the team’s parent company in Austria.

    The Times understands the woman has already been questioned as part of the process, with her claims thought to involve evidence she had originally passed to the head of human resources at Red Bull’s Salzburg base.

    Horner, who was continuing to operate in his role as team principal on Tuesday, has publicly denied the accusations. He has appointed lawyers of his own to defend his position.

    But Red Bull Austria confirmed on Monday that it was taking the matter “extremely seriously”, appointing an independent barrister to investigate the complaint.

    The outcome will determine if the man who has masterminded Red Bull’s phenomenal success on the track — the team have claimed seven F1 drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles in the period since 2010 — remains in the post he has occupied since 2005.

    The investigating KC is expected to take the weekend to review the evidence before advising the team’s owners of the action that needs to be taken early next week.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/christian-horner-accused-of-inappropriate-behaviour-by-female-colleague-60bh6w53s

    If Horner is found guilty then Verstappen should be stripped of all his titles #TaintedTitles

    Far more relevant would be RedBull breeching the spending cap. What the principle gets up to in a non-racing capacity has zero impact on Verstappen.
    It's about the culture of the team as well.

    Remember Red Bull let a known racist be a guest of honour as they do with a violent thug.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    edited February 7
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    Not by me.
    I thought it was pish.

    But it did pretty well at the box office.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,286
    TOPPING said:

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early.

    He won't last that long
  • Options
    Scott_xP said:

    TOPPING said:

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early.

    He won't last that long
    That's what she said.
  • Options
    Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,087

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    2nd May would mean an announcement, at the latest, on 25th March which isn't that far away. The tories show absolutely zero signs of beating to quarters so that doesn't look likely.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,387

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    KCIII dies in January, election postponed until February?
    Would require an act of Parliament?
    Yes it would
  • Options
    DougSeal said:

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    KCIII dies in January, election postponed until February?
    Would require an act of Parliament?
    Yes it would
    Thought so, really do need to read up on the latest legislation.

    I'll start with the Septennial Act 1715
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,541
    Scott_xP said:

    TOPPING said:

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early.

    He won't last that long
    I'm on next election Jan 2025 (typo in the original I was thinking "next year").

    Even if Rishi is not in charge how do you see it panning out? Joe Bloggs mounts a leadership challenge which succeeds and then, weeks after getting the job, calls an election to get wiped out?

    Can't see it myself. Even if there is a leadership challenge (there won't be) the new leader won't go to the country immediately.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    FF43 said:

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
    That’s also why sanctions are such an important part of the Western response. Over time, Russian business will decline thanks to people getting out of the country, and more banks will make the decision to shun Russian money.

    The reason for the talk about gold, is that it’s been almost impossible for Russians to get hold of hard currency since the war started, except for the black-market oil sales to China and India.
    Yet the Russian economy is growing and forecasts for it have been upgraded.

    https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/274111736/imf-improves-russias-2024-gdp-growth-forecast
    I’ll take any forecasts about Russia with a large pinch of salt, but the high oil price and military spending are definitely propping up their economy. I suspect they’re also trying to add their ‘new oblasts’ to the size of their economy.
  • Options
    Nigelb said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    Not by me.
    I thought it was pish.

    But it did pretty well at the box office.
    That's fine but that means you're not invited to my wedding to Margot Robbie.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,541
    TOPPING said:

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early. What's a few seats here and there and if Charles is fighting fit later this year, inflation continues to trend down, we have had a few rate cuts...well who knows.

    Will likely be the thinking.
    Disappointed with all the hardened PB betting types who didn't offer to bite my arm off with a bet that the next election wouldn't actually be in Jan 24.
  • Options
    Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,087
    TOPPING said:

    Scott_xP said:

    TOPPING said:

    I'm still on Jan 24. I see no reason for him to go early.

    He won't last that long
    I'm on next election Jan 2025 (typo in the original I was thinking "next year").
    Yeah, why does Big Rish give a flying one how bad the result is for the tories? He just wants to be PMOTUK as long as possible. Any notion that he will try to optimise the date to the best electoral advantage of the party is naivete of the highest order.
  • Options
    IanB2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Matt Goodwin
    @GoodwinMJ

    "In 2016 the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox, then dean of the cathedral, said it had converted 200 asylum seekers in four years. Yet he couldn’t think of a single example where somebody who had already gained British citizenship converted from Islam to Christianity"."

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1754985317482840137

    Wow sorry what the hell has this to do with anything? You think people who live here should have to convert, never heard so much bollocks in my life
    That’s not it at all

    People come here and convert and then claim asylum on the basis for fear of religious persecution. They get it and then never go to a church again
    That’s called making a real effort to assimilate to the local cultural norms.
    This kind of thing is widespread and has a rich tradition in this country.

    Where I once lived in East London it was widely known that the local Church School was the best, and by some distance. If you wanted to get your kid in however, you had to attend Church and support it financially and in various other ways. Not surprisingly, there was a very high rate of conversion in the area, even amongst the most sinful. Sadly,most of these rescued souls relapsed when the children were safely enrolled.

    'Tain't just the refugees that do it.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,387

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    KCIII dies in January, election postponed until February?
    That would require Parliament to pass and King William V sign into law an amendment extending the current one. That would have interesting effects.
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    God knows what JJ is on about. You are right. People are not buying the product and that is having an effect.

    Sales actually fell by more than 30% and were still down by 30% in December many months after the disastrous partnership with Mulvaney.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/29/food/bud-light-year-in-review-future/index.html
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411
    Nigelb said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    Not by me.
    I thought it was pish.

    But it did pretty well at the box office.
    I didn't see it. I don't really do movies.

    I doubt your dislike of it was due to being an "anti woke man baby".
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,673

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    It's not really a play, though. That implies that Rishi is in control of the situation and will calmly choose the day that maximises Conservative success.

    Whereas you and I know (as do Rishi and Harry, but they can't admit it out loud), there's no good day to have the election.

    Run in May and lose big. Hold off until early winter and probably lose worse- albeit with six months more in office and a bit more time for the horse to learn to sing.

    I think the Christmas thing rules out January. So that says December (and dumb as it would be, I still reckon December 19th). Unless Conservative MPs get so fractious that Rishi has to call an election to shut them up.
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,411

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    https://metro.co.uk/2023/07/24/barbie-backlash-too-woke-anti-men-19179331/
    Okay, so Metro journalist scours social media to find contrarian voices to write an article about. That is what journalism is these days. Scanning social media for clickbait articles.

    Makes a change from Reddit and Mumsnet.

    I doubt either of these people had seen it. I still stand by my comment, it was pretty much universally well received. A handful of dissenters doesn't really change that.

  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    God knows what JJ is on about. You are right. People are not buying the product and that is having an effect.

    Sales actually fell by more than 30% and were still down by 30% in December many months after the disastrous partnership with Mulvaney.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/29/food/bud-light-year-in-review-future/index.html
    It's quite clear what I'm on about. @Sandpit breathlessly talked about a share price crash for the company owning Budweiser, not sales. I'm pointing out it was not a crash - at least, unless the share price 'crashes' by more regularly.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    I'm not saying that. I'm saying it wasn't a 'crash' in the share price by any sane definition, given the share's volatility.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 40,105
    Nigelb said:

    .

    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    FF43 said:

    kamski said:

    Here's the actual poll:

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/monarchie-acht-prozent-der-deutschen-wuenschen-sich-einen-koenig-a-d4e93300-dd5c-4e9e-a2fd-31b50b6aaa76

    »In einigen europäischen Ländern – wie etwa in Großbritannien – gibt es eine parlamentarische Monarchie, wobei der König oder die Königin – ähnlich wie der Bundespräsident bei uns – keine politische Macht mehr hat, sondern als Staatsoberhaupt nur noch repräsentative Aufgaben wahrnimmt. Fänden Sie es gut, wenn es auch in Deutschland statt des Bundespräsidenten noch einen König oder eine Königin gäbe oder fänden Sie das nicht gut?«

    Translated:
    "In some European countries - such as the UK - there is a parliamentary monarchy, where the king or queen - similar to the federal president in Germany - no longer has any political power, but only fulfils representative tasks as head of state. Would you be in favour of a king or queen instead of a federal president in Germany, or would you be against that?"

    In favour 8%
    Against 89%

    People vote for the status quo everywhere but in monarchies this is somewhat mitigated by monarchy being an inherent nonsense ("It kind of works, so we'll stick with it")
    Looked at in a particular pragmatic way, all dignified, as opposed to efficient, bits of the state are inherent nonsense. In that light, monarchy is no worse than all the others.

    Dignified bits of the state have wide ramifications. One of them would be having buildings like the HoP and Westminster Hall, rather than a conference centre in Barking or Hull, rented by the day, to meet in.
    That's somewhat glosses over the intellectual issue with the monarchy, which is the absence of any requirement for the head of state to be competent or even sane. I do realise you can still end up with someone like Trump in a republic but at least he went through some sort of selection process.

    My theory is that societies with less sophisticated governance tolerated the occasional imbecile as monarch, which was
    a disaster each time it happened, because in the round it was better than constant succession wars. In principle we're better than that now.
    Any election forces a choice - by nature division.

    Any selection ends up with a political placeman and/or a bureaucratic non-entity

    A monarchy may have the occasional harmless fool, but they are a unifying feature that is non partisan and non political
    Not if the last couple of days on PB is anything to go by, they don't.
    More like ther last couple of millenia of the history of the Isles of Britain and Ireland.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    'universally well received' ? Here's a Forbes article on it:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/07/25/right-wing-backlash-against-barbie-is-just-sad/

    BTW, if you want a laugh, look at man-child Ben Shapiro's take:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynU-wVdesr0

    The anti-wokeists have gone a bit quiet on it since their campaign failed.
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,673

    IanB2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Matt Goodwin
    @GoodwinMJ

    "In 2016 the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox, then dean of the cathedral, said it had converted 200 asylum seekers in four years. Yet he couldn’t think of a single example where somebody who had already gained British citizenship converted from Islam to Christianity"."

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1754985317482840137

    Wow sorry what the hell has this to do with anything? You think people who live here should have to convert, never heard so much bollocks in my life
    That’s not it at all

    People come here and convert and then claim asylum on the basis for fear of religious persecution. They get it and then never go to a church again
    That’s called making a real effort to assimilate to the local cultural norms.
    This kind of thing is widespread and has a rich tradition in this country.

    Where I once lived in East London it was widely known that the local Church School was the best, and by some distance. If you wanted to get your kid in however, you had to attend Church and support it financially and in various other ways. Not surprisingly, there was a very high rate of conversion in the area, even amongst the most sinful. Sadly,most of these rescued souls relapsed when the children were safely enrolled.

    'Tain't just the refugees that do it.
    "On your knees, avoid the fees", as the saying goes.

    To their credit, church schools have mostly got rid of the more onerous ways of showing commitment to the church- points for flower arranging or donating a big prize for the raffle. The top category tends to be "roughly weekly attendance", which is harder for a certain sort of parent to game.

    (Good fun if you're doing school applications while at Theological College, though. "How often do I go to church? Twice daily, except on days when it's three...")
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 50,024
    edited February 7

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    I'm not saying that. I'm saying it wasn't a 'crash' in the share price by any sane definition, given the share's volatility.
    Okay fine. I’ll let others decide whether a 20% drop in the share price in two months counts as a crash.

    Housemoving day for me today, so I have better things to do now than continue to argue on the internet.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    FF43 said:

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
    That’s also why sanctions are such an important part of the Western response. Over time, Russian business will decline thanks to people getting out of the country, and more banks will make the decision to shun Russian money.

    The reason for the talk about gold, is that it’s been almost impossible for Russians to get hold of hard currency since the war started, except for the black-market oil sales to China and India.
    Yet the Russian economy is growing and forecasts for it have been upgraded.

    https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/274111736/imf-improves-russias-2024-gdp-growth-forecast
    I’ll take any forecasts about Russia with a large pinch of salt, but the high oil price and military spending are definitely propping up their economy. I suspect they’re also trying to add their ‘new oblasts’ to the size of their economy.
    I fear both Russian and China's economic figures diverge somewhat from reality. In the case of Russia, a lot. The question is how long they can continue fiddling the figures before the rubber band breaks - in the case of the USSR, it was about 20-25 years. But Russia isn't the USSR, and is facing much deeper issues.
  • Options
    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    I'm not saying that. I'm saying it wasn't a 'crash' in the share price by any sane definition, given the share's volatility.
    Okay fine. I’ll let others decide whether a 20% drop in the share price in two months counts as a crash.

    Housemoving day for me today, so I have better things to do now than continue to argue on the internet.
    Good luck with the house move.

    Other can decide on that, but they also need to look at much greater falls in the last five years - and before Covid. If that fall was a 'crash', then what were the others - 'massive crashes' ?
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,387
    edited February 7
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    As for the share price, it went from c.$67 to c.$54 in two months, that’s a 20% drop, or $25bn in market cap, according to your link.

    Yes, but look at where the share price had been just a few months before - to three years or 'all', instead of one. The share price goes all over the place. In late 2019, the share price halved. The idea that the price fall was a 'crash' in respect to the share's volatility is ridiculous.
    The share price dropped 20% in a couple of months, and still isn’t above where it was when this scandal started, despite a recovery following the Q3 report posted above, off the back of strong international sales. Bud Light is still screwed in the US though.

    What was the share price in 2019 is totally irrelevant to the conversation, which related to Q2 last year.
    'scandal'

    LOL.

    What happened in 2019 *is* relevant, as the halving in price it did then is a sign of how volatile the share price is. What you are claiming is a 'crash' just seems to be normal for this particular share. As another example,. look at the all between June and October 2021.
    LOL

    Did you miss the pandemic and war that made the 2020-2022 period so volatile?

    Sales of their best-selling line in their biggest market dropped by 30%, and their share price was 20% off at the same time. Their problems were referred to in their earnings calls to investors, and the scandal went from being covered by media commentators to being covered by the financial press. I’m saying that just maybe there’s some correlation there.
    Yes, which was why earlier I mentioned the larger fall in late 2019, *before* Covid.

    And it goes to show my point: their share price is volatile, and has fallen much more in recent times due to factors other than pathetic man-babies. You are desperate to make this out to be a 'win' for the same man-babies who want Ukraine to lose to Russia coz that will somehow MAGA.
    You what?

    I said that a load of bad headlines and boycotts stemming from a marketing campaign dropped their sales by 30%, and the share price dropped 20% at the same time.

    You’re saying there can’t possibly be any correlation because, err, Donald Trump Bad and Russia should win the war?
    I'm not saying that. I'm saying it wasn't a 'crash' in the share price by any sane definition, given the share's volatility.
    Okay fine. I’ll let others decide whether a 20% drop in the share price in two months counts as a crash.

    Housemoving day for me today, so I have better things to do now than continue to argue on the internet.
    How can anything possibly be more important than arguing on the internet? Have you not noticed how many people need instruction in the ways of the righteous?
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    RattersRatters Posts: 808

    On The S*n's revelation that November dates are a bit shit, I have news for them - October's are worse.

    Assuming that HMK has recovered from his big-C treatment he will be out of the country all month. Even if he isn't, October means calling the election in September, which means cancelling conference season, which means everyone will know in the summer that the "surprise" date is October.

    Unless he pulls the trigger for 2nd May he will be like the copilot in the film Flight "Oh lord we're coming out of 7,000 [remaining Tory voters] and all I see is houses"

    Nowhere to land without immolating the plane. And if the Trumpocalypse means he can't hold an election (did some of us not say this?) in November, then the obvious play is go long.

    2nd May, 12th December, 23rd January. That's it.

    It's not really a play, though. That implies that Rishi is in control of the situation and will calmly choose the day that maximises Conservative success.

    Whereas you and I know (as do Rishi and Harry, but they can't admit it out loud), there's no good day to have the election.

    Run in May and lose big. Hold off until early winter and probably lose worse- albeit with six months more in office and a bit more time for the horse to learn to sing.

    I think the Christmas thing rules out January. So that says December (and dumb as it would be, I still reckon December 19th). Unless Conservative MPs get so fractious that Rishi has to call an election to shut them up.
    I think May can be -or-less ruled out now:

    - It would require Sunak to call an election in around months' time. There is little prospect of a big polling turnaround in such a short time.

    - In the absence of any chance of winning a new term, staying in office and passing whatever laws he seems appropriate seems the next best option for someone who has always wanted to be PM. 6 months extra is a reasonably material time period to do that.

    - The longer the time period, the more likely 'something' turns up, positive or negative. From his perspective further bad news isn't too relevant - he's already losing a landslide with current polling.

    ... that still leaves October through to January available to choose from. I think all are possible, with October a slight favourite for me as I can't see significant new legalisation after the summer recess in any scenario.
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 39,221

    IanB2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Matt Goodwin
    @GoodwinMJ

    "In 2016 the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox, then dean of the cathedral, said it had converted 200 asylum seekers in four years. Yet he couldn’t think of a single example where somebody who had already gained British citizenship converted from Islam to Christianity"."

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1754985317482840137

    Wow sorry what the hell has this to do with anything? You think people who live here should have to convert, never heard so much bollocks in my life
    That’s not it at all

    People come here and convert and then claim asylum on the basis for fear of religious persecution. They get it and then never go to a church again
    That’s called making a real effort to assimilate to the local cultural norms.
    This kind of thing is widespread and has a rich tradition in this country.

    Where I once lived in East London it was widely known that the local Church School was the best, and by some distance. If you wanted to get your kid in however, you had to attend Church and support it financially and in various other ways. Not surprisingly, there was a very high rate of conversion in the area, even amongst the most sinful. Sadly,most of these rescued souls relapsed when the children were safely enrolled.

    'Tain't just the refugees that do it.
    Friends in South London did exactly that to get their child into a secondary school, just five or so years ago. It was particularly funny as he changed religion in order to marry her, and then they both changed to a third in order get into a good school.

    They've never been regular church-goers in any religion.
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138

    Nigelb said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    Not by me.
    I thought it was pish.

    But it did pretty well at the box office.
    That's fine but that means you're not invited to my wedding to Margot Robbie.
    She seems intimate with a surprising number of PBers, if their accounts are to be trusted.
    I hope she's not deceiving you.
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,990

    Sandpit said:

    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    FF43 said:

    An interesting dewvelopment?

    "The Chinese bank Chouzhou Commercial has notified customers of the suspension of operations with Russia and Belarus, sources among financial consultants, businessmen, and business associations told Vedomosti."

    https://twitter.com/secretsqrl123/status/1755074125821829570

    I'm not a finance bod, so I've little idea how bad this is for Russia. I doubt it's good though. I wonder how much gold Russia has in stocks? (Russia has been paying Iran for drones using gold).

    Chinese banks have the choice of being connected to the international financial system or dealing with Russia. All the major banks will choose the first but some third tier banks, of which this is one, will opt for Russia as a niche business. This bank has changed its mind but I suspect there will always be someone happy to take the Russian business.

    More significantly what's happening to Raiffeisen, Austria's biggest bank, which makes the biggest part of its profits from Russia? Not much so far. They are evaluating a potential exit from the Russian market, no doubt hoping Putin will sort something out before they need to do that.
    That’s also why sanctions are such an important part of the Western response. Over time, Russian business will decline thanks to people getting out of the country, and more banks will make the decision to shun Russian money.

    The reason for the talk about gold, is that it’s been almost impossible for Russians to get hold of hard currency since the war started, except for the black-market oil sales to China and India.
    Yet the Russian economy is growing and forecasts for it have been upgraded.

    https://www.malaysiasun.com/news/274111736/imf-improves-russias-2024-gdp-growth-forecast
    I’ll take any forecasts about Russia with a large pinch of salt, but the high oil price and military spending are definitely propping up their economy. I suspect they’re also trying to add their ‘new oblasts’ to the size of their economy.
    I fear both Russian and China's economic figures diverge somewhat from reality. In the case of Russia, a lot. The question is how long they can continue fiddling the figures before the rubber band breaks - in the case of the USSR, it was about 20-25 years. But Russia isn't the USSR, and is facing much deeper issues.
    It's a bit like all of the economic growth that we saw in covid, via NHS activity. Growth by economic measures, but not growth that can be a foundation for long term prosperity.

    People tire of a war economy. There was an interesting and balanced report from Kyiv on Newsnight last night worth catching up with too.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Candidly: who cares?

    The market will win out. If stories with lots of transgender kids get bums on seats, terrific. And if they turn off viewers like a dose of clap, then Disney will make an about turn very quickly indeed.
    The market has been speaking to Disney for quite some time. Their stock hit a 10-year low at the end of last year.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/08/04/the-four-flops-of-2023-that-cost-disney-1-billion/?sh=76daec1c3bed

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/media/disney-earnings-report-q4/index.html

    People want to watch good stories and exciting movies, not endless rehashes of existing IP with added preachiness.

    Good luck to Bob Iger, in convincing everyone else at the company that they need to turn the ship around.
    Yes, go Woke go Broke is a definite thing

    Exorcist: Believer is the greatest recent example

    A $400m investment buying the rights, to make three Woke versions in sequence of the original Exorcist

    Return?

    Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

    Metacritic: 39%

    IMDB: 4.8/10

    Box office, at best, $130m (set against a budget of $30m plus $400m for the rights) = minus $300m

    (Snip

    And yet Barbie, apparently the wokiest of woke films that got all the anti-woke man-babies blubbing:
    Did it ?

    It seemed to be universally well received.
    'universally well received' ? Here's a Forbes article on it:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/07/25/right-wing-backlash-against-barbie-is-just-sad/

    BTW, if you want a laugh, look at man-child Ben Shapiro's take:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynU-wVdesr0

    The anti-wokeists have gone a bit quiet on it since their campaign failed.
    The reason that Barbie was a success was unrelated to being Woke or not. It was simply a good, fairly original film, well acted and directed with good jokes, songs and visuals, as well as effective marketing.

    People are less bothered about the politics of a film if it is a good film. That is also true of films like Forrest Gump, with its celebration of American Conservative values.

    Make decent films and people will want to watch them.
    Odd that the wokefinders don't understand that simple logic.
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
    Carnyx said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    FF43 said:

    algarkirk said:

    FF43 said:

    kamski said:

    Here's the actual poll:

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/monarchie-acht-prozent-der-deutschen-wuenschen-sich-einen-koenig-a-d4e93300-dd5c-4e9e-a2fd-31b50b6aaa76

    »In einigen europäischen Ländern – wie etwa in Großbritannien – gibt es eine parlamentarische Monarchie, wobei der König oder die Königin – ähnlich wie der Bundespräsident bei uns – keine politische Macht mehr hat, sondern als Staatsoberhaupt nur noch repräsentative Aufgaben wahrnimmt. Fänden Sie es gut, wenn es auch in Deutschland statt des Bundespräsidenten noch einen König oder eine Königin gäbe oder fänden Sie das nicht gut?«

    Translated:
    "In some European countries - such as the UK - there is a parliamentary monarchy, where the king or queen - similar to the federal president in Germany - no longer has any political power, but only fulfils representative tasks as head of state. Would you be in favour of a king or queen instead of a federal president in Germany, or would you be against that?"

    In favour 8%
    Against 89%

    People vote for the status quo everywhere but in monarchies this is somewhat mitigated by monarchy being an inherent nonsense ("It kind of works, so we'll stick with it")
    Looked at in a particular pragmatic way, all dignified, as opposed to efficient, bits of the state are inherent nonsense. In that light, monarchy is no worse than all the others.

    Dignified bits of the state have wide ramifications. One of them would be having buildings like the HoP and Westminster Hall, rather than a conference centre in Barking or Hull, rented by the day, to meet in.
    That's somewhat glosses over the intellectual issue with the monarchy, which is the absence of any requirement for the head of state to be competent or even sane. I do realise you can still end up with someone like Trump in a republic but at least he went through some sort of selection process.

    My theory is that societies with less sophisticated governance tolerated the occasional imbecile as monarch, which was
    a disaster each time it happened, because in the round it was better than constant succession wars. In principle we're better than that now.
    Any election forces a choice - by nature division.

    Any selection ends up with a political placeman and/or a bureaucratic non-entity

    A monarchy may have the occasional harmless fool, but they are a unifying feature that is non partisan and non political
    Not if the last couple of days on PB is anything to go by, they don't.
    More like ther last couple of millenia of the history of the Isles of Britain and Ireland.
    So you're saying PB is an accurate proxy for that ?
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,541
    edited February 7
    Also, with the Charles news, ain't no one calling an election while there is still treatment ongoing or in the event of Charles' death.

    "Now is not the time to distract..." will be the line and then in Jan 25, at the last possible moment it will be more in sorrow than anger we have to have a GE HMK (says he/would have) wanted it that way democracy will continue, blah, blah.

    I might double up on my Jan 25 bet.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 63,138
This discussion has been closed.