R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
I got ‘it’ll get worse before it’ll get better, and it might not get better’ from that.
Trump voters interviewed in Braddock outside Pittsburgh on R4 this am; they mostly seemed to be still on board, though with concerns. I get the impression that inextricably linked to the return to manufacturing hegemony is a desire to get their Norman Rockwell USA back. I fear they’ll be disappointed however it pans out.
What I'm also getting from this is that these moves put America's tech hegemony at risk along side its military hegemony.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
If China sells, the Fed can buy, and nothing will break loose. It will be not unlike quantitative easing. According to the US Treasury, Britain owns more than China. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0037
Yes, I think China has been getting out of US Treasuries for some time, partly in anticipation of Trump number 2, and partly as protection against sanctions and seizures post the Russo-Ukranian war.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
Well Mr Vance is doing his best to stop them buying, without really considering why the US needs to borrow from "Chinese Peasants".
It seems as if Vance actually wants them to stop buying US Treasuries.
What he wants is them to no longer have the money to do so and for the US to no longer needing to borrow in such gargantuan terms. But he seems a little vague on the route from A to B.
Yet simultaneously wanting to raise the US debt limit. Who is he expecting to buy it?
I'm guessing that the yield on US bonds will rise to attract/retain buyers. This will make new US debt more expensive to service. It might also weaken the US$ so US debt and interest is worth less in other currencies. What an interesting experiment!
There seems to be a measure of concern on my timelines from financial types.
Apparently things are happening that are quite bad
Yes, my savings are down by about three years' worth. Luckily my pension is safe because it's in bonds rather than equities. Oh damn. I've just checked and they're down too, but not as much.
It's times like this that I love my index linked government pension.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
The hubris on display is simple: America is the Greatest Country on Earth and the foreigners Need Us.
China slapped with 104% tariffs on stuff it imports to the US. America is 16% of Chinese exports. China is a much higher percentage of US imports in a whole list of consumer product categories.
Much easier for China to increase trade with the remaining 84% and let America stew.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Never forget that Bedfordshire is also the birthplace of the hallowed institution known as Political Betting. 😄
What is a margin call and why is Wall Street terrified? Plunging markets following Trump’s tariffs could force investment banks to take emergency action
It's not *terrible*, but the walk from the train station to the bus station is not pleasant. That's one of my signs for a 'good' town, as it is something visitors often experience. Cambridge's isn't brilliant, either. Derby's been doing a lot to improve it, and it is much improved over three decades ago - though they lost the lovely art-deco bus station.
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
If China sells, the Fed can buy, and nothing will break loose. It will be not unlike quantitative easing. According to the US Treasury, Britain owns more than China. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0037
Japan is supposedly meeting in Washington on tariffs. Maybe their message will be "kill the tariffs - or we are out of US bonds too."
It's not *terrible*, but the walk from the train station to the bus station is not pleasant. That's one of my signs for a 'good' town, as it is something visitors often experience. Cambridge's isn't brilliant, either. Derby's been doing a lot to improve it, and it is much improved over three decades ago - though they lost the lovely art-deco bus station.
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
We clearly share the same middle class irritations. My husband always complains that we live in the worst area to get use out of our National Trust card.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
If China sells, the Fed can buy, and nothing will break loose. It will be not unlike quantitative easing. According to the US Treasury, Britain owns more than China. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0037
Yes, I think China has been getting out of US Treasuries for some time, partly in anticipation of Trump number 2, and partly as protection against sanctions and seizures post the Russo-Ukranian war.
I'm not an economist, but in my simplistic way of seeing things, the US trade deficit with China is somehow financed. I thought it was partly financed by China effectively lending the US money. Has this been replaced by (partly) private debt? Or Chinese buying American assets? Or some more circuitous route? Or maybe my understanding is too simplistic.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Never forget that Bedfordshire is also the birthplace of the hallowed institution known as Political Betting. 😄
When the theme park was first proposed, Bedfordshire residents were sent an email from Universal asking for local history ideas to theme some of the food and drink outlets. I wanted to suggest Bunyan's Burgers.
Presumably in the "wealthy South" because that's where they expect people can afford the tickets.
It'll be full of Brummies. The reality is that there's a reasonably sized gap for a theme park with good links to the Midlands.
It's a good location. Not that far from Harry Potter world in Watford, for people who like theme parks.
Not my cup of tea.
The A428 and Midland Main Line passes right by the site, as will East-West rail. AIUI they are going to 'move' an EWR station to right outside the site.
This'll make it massively easier to get to than Alton Towers, whose access has always been stymied by JCB.
(Four decades ago, JCB and Alton Towers joined together to get the road from Uttoxeter to Rocester improved. This led right up to the (then) main JCB factory's door. Then, when Alton Towers wanted to extend it three or four miles to them, JCB fought against it, as it would cross their land...)
What I have invested I will keep invested but what I have in cash stays in cash.
I did sell some of mine and my wife’s funds start of March as they were too heavy in tech and took some profit. I’m just lucky it is not genius on my part. More wanting to move a portion to less risky investments.
I am sooooo fortunate I retired when I did as I transferred my company DC pension to my SIPP and did so as cash. Currently transferring to II.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Never forget that Bedfordshire is also the birthplace of the hallowed institution known as Political Betting. 😄
When the theme park was first proposed, Bedfordshire residents were sent an email from Universal asking for local history ideas to theme some of the food and drink outlets. I wanted to suggest Bunyan's Burgers.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Never forget that Bedfordshire is also the birthplace of the hallowed institution known as Political Betting. 😄
When the theme park was first proposed, Bedfordshire residents were sent an email from Universal asking for local history ideas to theme some of the food and drink outlets. I wanted to suggest Bunyan's Burgers.
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Surely, Trump has bagged that name?
He's bagged the whole jury in Pilgrim's Progress:
"Mr Blind Man, Mr Malice, Mr Love Lust, Mr LIve Loose, Mr Heady, Mr High Mind, Mr Emnity, Mr Liar, Mr Cruelty, Mr Hate Light, Mr Implacable."
R4 Today; someone is building some sort of funfair in Bedfordshire; which is fine, as long as attendance is not compulsory. This is of such cultural significance that a 'culture' minister comes on to talk about it. A funfair with rides, not the place of Pirandello in European culture or Merovingian reliquaries.
More to the point, they expect 8 million customers a year and to employ tens of thousands. Which is good too. This expectation does not suggest that capitalism believes we are a nation impoverished, unemployable, bed bound, shoeless, homeless, on the sick, childless or travelling only on foot accompanied by a stick and a spotted handkerchief.
fun and Bedfordshire in the same sentence?
Bedfordshire is the birthplace of that witty and hilariously comic fun book 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Never forget that Bedfordshire is also the birthplace of the hallowed institution known as Political Betting. 😄
When the theme park was first proposed, Bedfordshire residents were sent an email from Universal asking for local history ideas to theme some of the food and drink outlets. I wanted to suggest Bunyan's Burgers.
What I have invested I will keep invested but what I have in cash stays in cash.
I did sell some of mine and my wife’s funds start of March as they were too heavy in tech and took some profit. I’m just lucky it is not genius on my part. More wanting to move a portion to less risky investments.
I am sooooo fortunate I retired when I did as I transferred my company DC pension to my SIPP and did so as cash. Currently transferring to II.
That's how all my friends have reacted too - cancelling the standard order into the S&S ISA. I guess EMH would suggest keep investing as normal, particularly at our age, but we're not convinced the markets have fully come to terms with how bad this could be.
Presumably in the "wealthy South" because that's where they expect people can afford the tickets.
It'll be full of Brummies. The reality is that there's a reasonably sized gap for a theme park with good links to the Midlands.
It's a good location. Not that far from Harry Potter world in Watford, for people who like theme parks.
Not my cup of tea.
The A428 and Midland Main Line passes right by the site, as will East-West rail. AIUI they are going to 'move' an EWR station to right outside the site.
This'll make it massively easier to get to than Alton Towers, whose access has always been stymied by JCB.
(Four decades ago, JCB and Alton Towers joined together to get the road from Uttoxeter to Rocester improved. This led right up to the (then) main JCB factory's door. Then, when Alton Towers wanted to extend it three or four miles to them, JCB fought against it, as it would cross their land...)
If anyone believes that low skilled mass manufacturing is going to return to rust belt small towns:
Chinese manufacturing labor isn’t just cheaper. It’s better.
In China, there are no people who are too fat to work. The workers don’t storm off midshift, never to return to their job. You don’t have people who insist on being paid in cash so that they can keep their disability payments, while they do acrobatics on the factory floor that the non-disabled workers cannot do.
Chinese workers much less likely to physically attack each other and their manager. They don’t take 30 minute bathroom breaks on company time. They don’t often quit because their out-of-state mother of their children discovered their new job and now receives 60% of their wages as child support. They don’t disappear because they’ve gone on meth benders. And they don’t fall asleep on a box midshift because their pay from yesterday got converted into pills.
And they can do their times tables. To manufacture, you need to be able to consistently and accurately multiply 7 times 9 and read in English, and a disturbingly large portion of the American workforce cannot do that.
Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard work and education that the United States no longer has.
JD Vance himself writes in the famous book that he was surrounded by people in his Ohio town who refused to work or would start a job and leave after a week because they had found they couldn't just get up when they wanted and roll in.
And the situation will have got worse in the years since then.
It would take a generational cultural shift to create a workforce in western countries which was capable of doing those types of jobs. Even if the pay was good, which it wouldn't be.
There seems to be a measure of concern on my timelines from financial types.
Apparently things are happening that are quite bad
Yes, my savings are down by about three years' worth. Luckily my pension is safe because it's in bonds rather than equities. Oh damn. I've just checked and they're down too, but not as much.
It's times like this that I love my index linked government pension.
Wait till the triple lock-haters find out how much the government spends on these. Oh, hold on, that would include MPs' pensions. Stand down, everyone. Panic over.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
If China sells, the Fed can buy, and nothing will break loose. It will be not unlike quantitative easing. According to the US Treasury, Britain owns more than China. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0037
Japan is supposedly meeting in Washington on tariffs. Maybe their message will be "kill the tariffs - or we are out of US bonds too."
If enough turned up with that message....
Let's hope Starmer doesn't go cap in hand begging to kiss the hand of Orange.
It's not *terrible*, but the walk from the train station to the bus station is not pleasant. That's one of my signs for a 'good' town, as it is something visitors often experience. Cambridge's isn't brilliant, either. Derby's been doing a lot to improve it, and it is much improved over three decades ago - though they lost the lovely art-deco bus station.
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
Surely *any* walk from the train station to the bus station is poor, they really need to be co-located. Aldershot recently closed its bus station and all the buses now start from slightly different places around town, which is a pain on the arse.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The EU had better start issuing a few hundred billion jointly guaranteed short-dated debt.
Need somewhere for all the central bank reserve money fleeing the US treasury market to go.
All it takes for American bond yields to rise is for China to stop buying. And I suspect that they have. They have been the buyer of last resort (other than the Fed through quantative easing) for a very long time now. If they start selling all hell will break loose.
If China sells, the Fed can buy, and nothing will break loose. It will be not unlike quantitative easing. According to the US Treasury, Britain owns more than China. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0037
Japan is supposedly meeting in Washington on tariffs. Maybe their message will be "kill the tariffs - or we are out of US bonds too."
If enough turned up with that message....
Let's hope Starmer doesn't go cap in hand begging to kiss the hand of Orange.
Seriously? The man has been clearly insane for years, is the most well known politicians on the planet and fund managers are only quietly wondering about it now.....
There seems to be a measure of concern on my timelines from financial types.
Apparently things are happening that are quite bad
Yes, my savings are down by about three years' worth. Luckily my pension is safe because it's in bonds rather than equities. Oh damn. I've just checked and they're down too, but not as much.
It's times like this that I love my index linked government pension.
Wait till the triple lock-haters find out how much the government spends on these. Oh, hold on, that would include MPs' pensions. Stand down, everyone. Panic over.
Just imagine what we would spend if we triple locked the index for govt pensions.......
Seriously? The man has been clearly insane for years, is the most well known politicians on the planet and fund managers are only quietly wondering about it now.....
The risk for Trump of taking the US out of NATO is that in the unlikely event of his economic war with China turning into a military war he could no longer count on other NATO nations support
Presumably in the "wealthy South" because that's where they expect people can afford the tickets.
Is disposable income for Joe Average higher in the north or south? I suspect north due to property prices but could be wrong.
Theme parks are positioned near transport and population centres but just far enough out that the land is available and not exorbitant. Bedford fits the bill well.
It's not *terrible*, but the walk from the train station to the bus station is not pleasant. That's one of my signs for a 'good' town, as it is something visitors often experience. Cambridge's isn't brilliant, either. Derby's been doing a lot to improve it, and it is much improved over three decades ago - though they lost the lovely art-deco bus station.
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
Surely *any* walk from the train station to the bus station is poor, they really need to be co-located. Aldershot recently closed its bus station and all the buses now start from slightly different places around town, which is a pain on the arse.
I agree, but the station is not always in the city centre (as is the case in Derby (*) and Cambridge). In which case, you have to try to make the journey between the two as convenient and pleasant as possible. Bedford's... isn't. Or alternatively, run a shuttle bus between them - but that can be inconvenient as well.
(*) Derby used to have Friargate station, which was very central, but that was not on the busiest line and shut in the sixties.
With 104% tariffs on imports from China to the US now taking effect, how much US manufacturing is reliant on imports of components from China, and how long until it collapses in the face of the tariffs?
Also, as an aside, but does this kill the expansion of solar power in the US too?
Julian Jessop @julianHjessop FYI, Treasury yields are rebounding, so fans of Trump's tariffs can't even claim a lower cost of government borrowing as a benefit... 🙄
NB. oddly, yields are rising even though markets are pricing in more cuts from the Fed; this anomaly probably reflects a mix of factors including persistent inflation concerns, forced sales of bonds to cover losses on basis trades (arbitraging between cash Treasuries and futures) or other assets, a shortage of foreign buyers, and investors choosing to bet on rate cuts in other ways (e.g. interest rate swaps).
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
Wily old Warren. Though correlation does not necessarily imply causation, it looks like attendance on Trump's inauguration cuckfest damages your wealth.
Trump's economic chief just revealed plans to TAX foreign holdings of US financial assets. Hidden in plain sight. Miran outlined 5 forms of "burden sharing" for countries benefiting from the US dollar reserve system: Four of these deal with reducing trade surpluses (more US exports, less US imports, etc.) - essentially reducing their net accumulation of US financial assets. But the 5th proposal is the bombshell: Countries "could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods." Translation: You can keep holding US Treasuries and dollar financial assets, but you'll now pay a tax for the privilege. It's now almost a slam dunk that the administration's upcoming tax bill (likely in May) will include a provision bringing back the 30% foreign withholding tax on interest income that was eliminated in 1984. We predicted exactly this move in our ‘Dollar’s Dilemma’ and ‘Sovereign Wealth Effect’ reports published in Dec and Feb... https://x.com/michaeljmcnair/status/1909632751306780765
Wily old Warren. Though correlation does not necessarily imply causation, it looks like attendance on Trump's inauguration cuckfest damages your wealth.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
I am firmly of the opinion that if social media had not been invented Trump would not be president.
If anyone believes that low skilled mass manufacturing is going to return to rust belt small towns:
Chinese manufacturing labor isn’t just cheaper. It’s better.
In China, there are no people who are too fat to work. The workers don’t storm off midshift, never to return to their job. You don’t have people who insist on being paid in cash so that they can keep their disability payments, while they do acrobatics on the factory floor that the non-disabled workers cannot do.
Chinese workers much less likely to physically attack each other and their manager. They don’t take 30 minute bathroom breaks on company time. They don’t often quit because their out-of-state mother of their children discovered their new job and now receives 60% of their wages as child support. They don’t disappear because they’ve gone on meth benders. And they don’t fall asleep on a box midshift because their pay from yesterday got converted into pills.
And they can do their times tables. To manufacture, you need to be able to consistently and accurately multiply 7 times 9 and read in English, and a disturbingly large portion of the American workforce cannot do that.
Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard work and education that the United States no longer has.
JD Vance himself writes in the famous book that he was surrounded by people in his Ohio town who refused to work or would start a job and leave after a week because they had found they couldn't just get up when they wanted and roll in.
Except in the US benefits are time limited and contributory so you soon have to get another job
I can't read the article because it is paywalled, but would be interested in the methodology. For a start $1m is under £800k. A vast amount of home owners in London will exceed that value who may well be moving out to the suburbs. A simple small drop in houses prices would have a dramatic impact around the £800k mark.
To be meaningful you need to be looking at $10m or more.
Any one got the details?
One for 'More or Less' to rip apart I am guessing.
With 104% tariffs on imports from China to the US now taking effect, how much US manufacturing is reliant on imports of components from China, and how long until it collapses in the face of the tariffs?
Also, as an aside, but does this kill the expansion of solar power in the US too?
Xmas is cancelled in the US that's for sure.
The wholesale buyers iirc do the advanced orders for xmas tat about now.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
I blame the BBC. If they hadn't commissioned "The Apprentice", the septics wouldn't have commissioned it, and Trump would still be a NY socialite and real estate huckster.
So the BBC are the butterfly that flapped it's wings.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
I blame the BBC. If they hadn't commissioned "The Apprentice", the septics wouldn't have commissioned it, and Trump would still be a NY socialite and real estate huckster.
So the BBC are the butterfly that flapped it's wings.
Obama and the White House Press Association Dinner joke perhaps.
If anyone believes that low skilled mass manufacturing is going to return to rust belt small towns:
Chinese manufacturing labor isn’t just cheaper. It’s better.
In China, there are no people who are too fat to work. The workers don’t storm off midshift, never to return to their job. You don’t have people who insist on being paid in cash so that they can keep their disability payments, while they do acrobatics on the factory floor that the non-disabled workers cannot do.
Chinese workers much less likely to physically attack each other and their manager. They don’t take 30 minute bathroom breaks on company time. They don’t often quit because their out-of-state mother of their children discovered their new job and now receives 60% of their wages as child support. They don’t disappear because they’ve gone on meth benders. And they don’t fall asleep on a box midshift because their pay from yesterday got converted into pills.
And they can do their times tables. To manufacture, you need to be able to consistently and accurately multiply 7 times 9 and read in English, and a disturbingly large portion of the American workforce cannot do that.
Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard work and education that the United States no longer has.
All very well but if Chinese imported goods face a 100% tariff it makes more sense to have more US based factories producting manufactured goods for the US market no matter how good the Chinese workforce is
How has the american system of government essentially allowed one man to deliberately engineer the second great depression with barely a peep from the actual legislators?
De facto. Effectively leaving might be enough. Trump has suggested letting a European take the top job and has (via Vance) told the Europeans that there will be no involvement of American forces. So he has already left defacto De jure. Zeihan suggested that events in Romania (I forget which) may provide a pretended cause for departure.
So he may decide that letting NATO whither is enough, or seize on an event as a pretended cause for departure. So yes, on that basis 5/1 is value?
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
I blame the BBC. If they hadn't commissioned "The Apprentice", the septics wouldn't have commissioned it, and Trump would still be a NY socialite and real estate huckster.
So the BBC are the butterfly that flapped it's wings.
Obama and the White House Press Association Dinner joke perhaps.
That's at least a wing on the butterfly. Being put down by a black man. Intolerable.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
A lot of people, not unreasonably, didn't feel like the status quo was doing them any good, and mainstream politicians have fuck all to offer in terms of alternatives or leadership.
If anyone believes that low skilled mass manufacturing is going to return to rust belt small towns:
Chinese manufacturing labor isn’t just cheaper. It’s better.
In China, there are no people who are too fat to work. The workers don’t storm off midshift, never to return to their job. You don’t have people who insist on being paid in cash so that they can keep their disability payments, while they do acrobatics on the factory floor that the non-disabled workers cannot do.
Chinese workers much less likely to physically attack each other and their manager. They don’t take 30 minute bathroom breaks on company time. They don’t often quit because their out-of-state mother of their children discovered their new job and now receives 60% of their wages as child support. They don’t disappear because they’ve gone on meth benders. And they don’t fall asleep on a box midshift because their pay from yesterday got converted into pills.
And they can do their times tables. To manufacture, you need to be able to consistently and accurately multiply 7 times 9 and read in English, and a disturbingly large portion of the American workforce cannot do that.
Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard work and education that the United States no longer has.
JD Vance himself writes in the famous book that he was surrounded by people in his Ohio town who refused to work or would start a job and leave after a week because they had found they couldn't just get up when they wanted and roll in.
Except in the US benefits are time limited and contributory so you soon have to get another job
It sounds very MAGA
“Bring back flogging the serfs until productivity and moral improves.”
Yet, in many industries, the US is world beating. Just not in rote assembly line jobs for shit pay.
Presumably in the "wealthy South" because that's where they expect people can afford the tickets.
Is disposable income for Joe Average higher in the north or south? I suspect north due to property prices but could be wrong.
Theme parks are positioned near transport and population centres but just far enough out that the land is available and not exorbitant. Bedford fits the bill well.
And that should be a criterion for new towns, or new housing estates – near transport and population centres but just far enough out that the land is available and not exorbitant.
If anyone believes that low skilled mass manufacturing is going to return to rust belt small towns:
Chinese manufacturing labor isn’t just cheaper. It’s better.
In China, there are no people who are too fat to work. The workers don’t storm off midshift, never to return to their job. You don’t have people who insist on being paid in cash so that they can keep their disability payments, while they do acrobatics on the factory floor that the non-disabled workers cannot do.
Chinese workers much less likely to physically attack each other and their manager. They don’t take 30 minute bathroom breaks on company time. They don’t often quit because their out-of-state mother of their children discovered their new job and now receives 60% of their wages as child support. They don’t disappear because they’ve gone on meth benders. And they don’t fall asleep on a box midshift because their pay from yesterday got converted into pills.
And they can do their times tables. To manufacture, you need to be able to consistently and accurately multiply 7 times 9 and read in English, and a disturbingly large portion of the American workforce cannot do that.
Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard work and education that the United States no longer has.
All very well but if Chinese imported goods face a 100% tariff it makes more sense to have more US based factories producting manufactured goods for the US market no matter how good the Chinese workforce is
1. 100% tariffs just means that the Chinese have to be a factor of two times more effective than these hypothetical US factory workers. That doesn't seem too much of a stretch. 2. You can't conjure up these factories overnight. 3. The most likely outcome of making products more expensive and worse quality is that people won't buy them, made in the USA or not.
I know that the arguments that Trump and Vance are putting forward. In their case, it's because they're loonies.
How has the american system of government essentially allowed one man to deliberately engineer the second great depression with barely a peep from the actual legislators?
It doesn't matter what systems or procedures you have in place if the people who are supposed to run the system are cowed by fear.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
Lack of critical faculties amongst the electorate.
De facto. Effectively leaving might be enough. Trump has suggested letting a European take the top job and has (via Vance) told the Europeans that there will be no involvement of American forces. So he has already left defacto De jure. Zeihan suggested that events in Romania (I forget which) may provide a pretended cause for departure.
So he may decide that letting NATO whither is enough, or seize on an event as a pretended cause for departure. So yes, on that basis 5/1 is value?
He doesn't have the power to do a de jure departure. He needs the approval of the Senate or an Act of Congress and he won't be able get either. There are still enough traditional Republican Senators who will block a de jure departure.
What we are watching is Trump’s tariff-induced crash turning into a Truss-style fiscal crisis. The collapse in US government long bonds, Treasuries, is startling, scary. It is precisely the opposite of what Trump and his advisers expected and wanted. It partly reflects heightened fears of US recession - which would see ballooning of US deficit - and may also be revenge selling by sovereign holders in tariff-hit countries. This bond market turmoil also increases risk of margin calls and forced sales by over exposed institutional investors. Another huge day.
If the US government struggles in its auctions when selling new government bonds to fund its current deficit, at that juncture surely Trump capitulates to market pressure. The other actors to watch are the central banks - the Fed, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank - and whether they are obliged to act intervene by cutting interest rates and providing liquidity
Morning all. So, my wife is keen to get fit after the arrival of our new child, but is finding it hard to carve out the time with all the other kids around.
It's fair to say that doing yoga is something of a stretch goal
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
I blame the BBC. If they hadn't commissioned "The Apprentice", the septics wouldn't have commissioned it, and Trump would still be a NY socialite and real estate huckster.
So the BBC are the butterfly that flapped it's wings.
It's not *terrible*, but the walk from the train station to the bus station is not pleasant. That's one of my signs for a 'good' town, as it is something visitors often experience. Cambridge's isn't brilliant, either. Derby's been doing a lot to improve it, and it is much improved over three decades ago - though they lost the lovely art-deco bus station.
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
It's a fair point, however are you perhaps overdoing a little the stereotyped version of the NT as a collection of Country Houses? Bedfordshire has a number of NY landscape locations - eg the Whipsnade Tree Cathedral.
Fine, we have the washed-up people of Restore Trust who want to live in an Agatha Christie book playing bridge and yammering on about today's outrage bus, whatever it is, writing angry articles.
I've been to NT a number of time already this year, and I'm somewhat impressed with things that I am seeing happening at the edges. At my local properties I'm seeing a few straws in the wind of the organisation trying to engage at a practical level outside their traditional constituency.
I'm trying to do my bit to get them to pay attention to things like linking in to public footpath networks, and the current Govt a setting a massively better set of values than the Theresa Coffey (for example) shit show. Hardwick Hall has 200-300k people within easy non-motoring distance, and a massive footpath network which is ignored.
One property to watch for improving access imo is Dunham Massey.
* To my eye Restore Trust has links from some quite strange places, notably Tory idealogues wanting to create culture wars.
The mystery is why so many — from Ackman’s fellow billionaires to Florida-based Venezuelans — have bent over backwards to miss who Trump is. A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists. The whole market arguably suffers from this syndrome. Shortly after plummeting on Monday morning, a fake news release surfaced that said Trump would announce a pause on his tariffs this week. The markets more than erased their opening losses. All those gains, in turn, were wiped out when the White House issued a denial.
....while Trump is in charge, stay short on America.
As the ex-GOP rebels on the Bulwark keep saying: why did no one listen to us? We told you repeatedly what he was like and what would happen.
It is a good question. Fox News and the development of social media both crucial to the Trumpian takeover, anything else?
Coinciding with boomers disappointed that the home straights of their lives have not necessarily turned in their favor. Moreover, the general trends of the world have not been advantageous to them. Join the fcking club, I say.
To be fair, AEP has predicted 105,456 of the last 2 world financial crises.
He has, but Trump is gearing up for an all out attack on the Fed.
At the back of my mind is the knowledge that the US represents 25% of global GDP but 60% of market capitalisation. There were two ways that the US could adjust this and Trump has chosen the one that will lead to the collapse of US exceptionalism. This has already cost Trillions, by the end, it will be a number so vast as to be inconceivable.
Unless the Congress seizes back control over the steering wheel, the US is going straight over the cliff. As it is the rule of law in the US, upon which all else depends, is now looking so threadbare as to presage a collapse of confidence in the entire system. If that happens, there is no come back for the US.
What I have invested I will keep invested but what I have in cash stays in cash.
I did sell some of mine and my wife’s funds start of March as they were too heavy in tech and took some profit. I’m just lucky it is not genius on my part. More wanting to move a portion to less risky investments.
I am sooooo fortunate I retired when I did as I transferred my company DC pension to my SIPP and did so as cash. Currently transferring to II.
That's how all my friends have reacted too - cancelling the standard order into the S&S ISA. I guess EMH would suggest keep investing as normal, particularly at our age, but we're not convinced the markets have fully come to terms with how bad this could be.
If I was in my thirties or forties I’d keep paying in and dollar cost average. At 59 I’m happy to commit some to equities to fund the back end of my retirement. But not a lot of it and a fair amount of that is in dividend paying stocks.
If there is a 50% tariff on Nvidia cards - best to set up the data centers in Europe or Canada whether the tariffs are low and energy is relatively cheap and available
We had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had the reserve currency. We had a capital inflow. We had everything we needed, and it all ran like clockwork. You could've shut your mouth, printed as much money as you ever needed and traded it for Nike shoes and iPhones built in other countries. It was perfect. But, no, you just had to blow it up. You and your pride and your ego! You just had to be the man. If you'd done your job, known your place, we'd all be fine right now. https://x.com/tszzl/status/1909873224550375526
They are actively wrecking the country. I'm not sure it really matters whether its through malice or sheer incompetence. There are signs that they have realised how much they've buggered it up, but corrective actions are happening too little, too late, and being mishandled to boot.
They are actively wrecking the country. I'm not sure it really matters whether its through malice or sheer incompetence. There are signs that they have realised how much they've buggered it up, but corrective actions are happening too little, too late, and being mishandled to boot.
Labour are wrecking it? So you're claiming that iot wasn't already wrecked?
Your definition of "wrecked" may differ from reality.
I’m guessing the tube wasn’t in for the entirety of the journey, just the customs points, however, it might have just felt good in which case the train journey might have been pleasurable - each to their own.
I had a "round in the chamber" for about 15 minutes while boarding the MV Sanctions Buster in SA and for about 90 minutes while we waited for Dutch customs to clear the ship at 2am in Rotterdam. Getting it out was worse than putting it in both times.
I've also smuggled gold into India quite a few times over the years but that's easier and doesn't necessitate arsehole shenanigans. Also very high value car parts through Dover quite recently as a brexit bonus but, again, no sphinctoral dilation involved.
To be fair, AEP has predicted 105,456 of the last 2 world financial crises.
He has, but Trump is gearing up for an all out attack on the Fed.
At the back of my mind is the knowledge that the US represents 25% of global GDP but 60% of market capitalisation. There were two ways that the US could adjust this and Trump has chosen the one that will lead to the collapse of US exceptionalism. This has already cost Trillions, by the end, it will be a number so vast as to be inconceivable.
Unless the Congress seizes back control over the steering wheel, the US is going straight over the cliff. As it is the rule of law in the US, upon which all else depends, is now looking so threadbare as to presage a collapse of confidence in the entire system. If that happens, there is no come back for the US.
Will spineless congress act to stop this insanity?
Comments
Any amusement park in the county should be called 'Vanity Fair'.
Given its location Merlin must be very unhappy.
It might also weaken the US$ so US debt and interest is worth less in other currencies.
What an interesting experiment!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTilowhsX_w
From my POV, it was interesting to see exactly what is inside one.
It’s about time this govt tried doing things for the less wealthy parts of the U.K.
https://www.bedford.gov.uk/your-council/statistics-and-census-information/indices-deprivation-2019/indices-deprivation-2019#:~:text=Nationally, Bedford Borough is in,rank of average score').
UK borrowing costs are soaring as bond markets crater amid a US Treasuries fire sale
*UK 30-YEAR YIELD RISES 16BPS TO 5.51%, HIGHEST SINCE 1998
FTSE 100 down another 2.5% at open
https://x.com/alexwickham/status/1909866369937551613
My god… 10yr 4.5%
Yields going vertical.
https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1909821667188081078
James Carville will die laughing.
Not my cup of tea.
What is a margin call and why is Wall Street terrified?
Plunging markets following Trump’s tariffs could force investment banks to take emergency action
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/07/what-is-a-margin-call-why-trumps-tariff-trade-war-blame/
One thing that strikes me about Bedfordshire, is that (I think!) it only has one National Trust property in it - the Willington Dovecote and stables. Most counties have many more.
If enough turned up with that message....
Sit down and listen carefully - Yes they are, but the trading price isn't, which impacts the effective rate.
This'll make it massively easier to get to than Alton Towers, whose access has always been stymied by JCB.
(Four decades ago, JCB and Alton Towers joined together to get the road from Uttoxeter to Rocester improved. This led right up to the (then) main JCB factory's door. Then, when Alton Towers wanted to extend it three or four miles to them, JCB fought against it, as it would cross their land...)
I did sell some of mine and my wife’s funds start of March as they were too heavy in tech and took some profit. I’m just lucky it is not genius on my part. More wanting to move a portion to less risky investments.
I am sooooo fortunate I retired when I did as I transferred my company DC pension to my SIPP and did so as cash. Currently transferring to II.
"Mr Blind Man, Mr Malice, Mr Love Lust, Mr LIve Loose, Mr Heady, Mr High Mind, Mr Emnity, Mr Liar, Mr Cruelty, Mr Hate Light, Mr Implacable."
It would take a generational cultural shift to create a workforce in western countries which was capable of doing those types of jobs. Even if the pay was good, which it wouldn't be.
https://x.com/micah_erfan/status/1909761165623771215
So do we, but the point is I wonder who is telling him the plan is working, apart from the voices in his head?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is right.
If you think it’s alarming now, just wait for Trump to wreck the bond market
The White House’s push for for expanded presidential power threatens US economic stability
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/08/trump-sell-off-is-bad-wait-until-wreck-us-bond-market/
The UK capital has lost 11,300 dollar millionaires over the past year, a higher proportion than anywhere other than Moscow
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/london/article/london-falls-out-top-five-wealthiest-cities-wtmn0ws9m (£££)
Equality rises under Labour.
Double brace.
Theme parks are positioned near transport and population centres but just far enough out that the land is available and not exorbitant. Bedford fits the bill well.
(*) Derby used to have Friargate station, which was very central, but that was not on the busiest line and shut in the sixties.
Also, as an aside, but does this kill the expansion of solar power in the US too?
@julianHjessop
FYI, Treasury yields are rebounding, so fans of Trump's tariffs can't even claim a lower cost of government borrowing as a benefit... 🙄
NB. oddly, yields are rising even though markets are pricing in more cuts from the Fed; this anomaly probably reflects a mix of factors including persistent inflation concerns, forced sales of bonds to cover losses on basis trades (arbitraging between cash Treasuries and futures) or other assets, a shortage of foreign buyers, and investors choosing to bet on rate cuts in other ways (e.g. interest rate swaps).
https://x.com/julianHjessop/status/1909861558764581002
Though correlation does not necessarily imply causation, it looks like attendance on Trump's inauguration cuckfest damages your wealth.
https://x.com/Nigelj08223326/status/1909843692174635156
To be meaningful you need to be looking at $10m or more.
Any one got the details?
One for 'More or Less' to rip apart I am guessing.
The wholesale buyers iirc do the advanced orders for xmas tat about now.
So the BBC are the butterfly that flapped it's wings.
De facto. Effectively leaving might be enough. Trump has suggested letting a European take the top job and has (via Vance) told the Europeans that there will be no involvement of American forces. So he has already left defacto
De jure. Zeihan suggested that events in Romania (I forget which) may provide a pretended cause for departure.
So he may decide that letting NATO whither is enough, or seize on an event as a pretended cause for departure. So yes, on that basis 5/1 is value?
“Bring back flogging the serfs until productivity and moral improves.”
Yet, in many industries, the US is world beating. Just not in rote assembly line jobs for shit pay.
2. You can't conjure up these factories overnight.
3. The most likely outcome of making products more expensive and worse quality is that people won't buy them, made in the USA or not.
I know that the arguments that Trump and Vance are putting forward. In their case, it's because they're loonies.
What we are watching is Trump’s tariff-induced crash turning into a Truss-style fiscal crisis. The collapse in US government long bonds, Treasuries, is startling, scary. It is precisely the opposite of what Trump and his advisers expected and wanted. It partly reflects heightened fears of US recession - which would see ballooning of US deficit - and may also be revenge selling by sovereign holders in tariff-hit countries. This bond market turmoil also increases risk of margin calls and forced sales by over exposed institutional investors. Another huge day.
If the US government struggles in its auctions when selling new government bonds to fund its current deficit, at that juncture surely Trump capitulates to market pressure. The other actors to watch are the central banks - the Fed, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank - and whether they are obliged to act intervene by cutting interest rates and providing liquidity
https://x.com/Peston/status/1909859264828420374
It's fair to say that doing yoga is something of a stretch goal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002945y/amol-rajan-interviews-alan-sugar
Fine, we have the washed-up people of Restore Trust who want to live in an Agatha Christie book playing bridge and yammering on about today's outrage bus, whatever it is, writing angry articles.
I've been to NT a number of time already this year, and I'm somewhat impressed with things that I am seeing happening at the edges. At my local properties I'm seeing a few straws in the wind of the organisation trying to engage at a practical level outside their traditional constituency.
I'm trying to do my bit to get them to pay attention to things like linking in to public footpath networks, and the current Govt a setting a massively better set of values than the Theresa Coffey (for example) shit show. Hardwick Hall has 200-300k people within easy non-motoring distance, and a massive footpath network which is ignored.
One property to watch for improving access imo is Dunham Massey.
* To my eye Restore Trust has links from some quite strange places, notably Tory idealogues wanting to create culture wars.
Join the fcking club, I say.
At the back of my mind is the knowledge that the US represents 25% of global GDP but 60% of market capitalisation. There were two ways that the US could adjust this and Trump has chosen the one that will lead to the collapse of US exceptionalism. This has already cost Trillions, by the end, it will be a number so vast as to be inconceivable.
Unless the Congress seizes back control over the steering wheel, the US is going straight over the cliff. As it is the rule of law in the US, upon which all else depends, is now looking so threadbare as to presage a collapse of confidence in the entire system. If that happens, there is no come back for the US.
We had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had the reserve currency. We had a capital inflow. We had everything we needed, and it all ran like clockwork. You could've shut your mouth, printed as much money as you ever needed and traded it for Nike shoes and iPhones built in other countries. It was perfect. But, no, you just had to blow it up. You and your pride and your ego! You just had to be the man. If you'd done your job, known your place, we'd all be fine right now.
https://x.com/tszzl/status/1909873224550375526
Your definition of "wrecked" may differ from reality.
I've also smuggled gold into India quite a few times over the years but that's easier and doesn't necessitate arsehole shenanigans. Also very high value car parts through Dover quite recently as a brexit bonus but, again, no sphinctoral dilation involved.
This is the $64 trillion question now.