Looking Backwards …
I recently came across a funny joke by Norm McDonald in which he said something to the effect, I was reading the history books and the good guys always won, can you believe that? What are the odds? Norm loved to gamble, so I am sure he found the odds being a certainty a bit of a longshot. Well, the US is the current bully of the world. We won that right 80 years ago but didn’t start bullying people until the 70’s. It has taken 50 years, but it turns out that people don’t like being bullied. I hate to go all after school special here, but bullying is wrong. Now, just because it is wrong doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen the world over. We’ve talked about America trying to bully Russia and Russia saying, we will take one of our hypersonic missiles which you don’t have or know how to build and bring this war to your shore. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in and saved us from finding out. Now it appears that the US has shifted its bully pulpit to Asia. This from ZeroHedge, “China’s military has once again blamed Washington for the breakdown of talks, with the Chinese Defense Ministry blasting US support to Taiwan as the reason for Chinese defense chief Dong Jun rebuffing a direct request for dialogue from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin this week.
Both leaders were in Laos for meetings with Southeast Asian officials on Thursday. “The responsibility lies fully with the American side,” said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian. “The US side cannot undermine China’s core interests on the Taiwan issue, yet at the same time try to conduct exchanges with the [mainland] Chinese military as if nothing had happened,” the statement said. Just weeks ago, late last month, the Biden administration unveiled $2 billion more in approved arms sales to Taiwan, including an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, which drew Beijing’s swift rebuke and anger.
CNN reported earlier that the package “includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.” Radar systems were also listed, at over $800 million.”
Considering that China is a vital part of our military supply chains, it would seem prudent to stop provoking China over an island thousands of miles from our shores. The military industrial complex must be needing to sell some equipment.
LB #2
There is a part in the movie Swingers where T says proudly that our little baby is all grows up. Well, the little crusader Robby Starbuck just made it all the way to the big time. The biggest retailer in the country is eliminating its woke policies in part of the efforts of Robby and his legion of conservative shoppers. This from ZeroHedge, “Anti-woke crusader Robby Starbuck has been on a mission to shift the corporate landscape in America from insanity and rainbows to what he considers “sanity and neutrality.” He has successfully pressured companies such as Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe’s, Ford, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniel’s, DeWalt Tools, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing, and Toyota to move away from toxic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices.
Now, Starbuck is at it again. He wrote on X that America’s largest employer, Walmart, has decided to end its woke policies after he “had productive conversations to find solutions” with management.”
They are doing away with a bunch of the stupid woke crap that all the others were doing and I don’t feel like listing them and boring you with details of transgender girl toys with penii etc. Here is a quote from Starbuck, “We’ve now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result. I’m happy to have secured these changes before Christmas when shoppers have very few large retail brands they can spend money with who aren’t pushing woke policies. Companies like Amazon and Target should be very nervous that their top competitor dropped woke policies first. I think Target specifically will suffer serious sales problems as a result and Walmart will benefit.
Our campaigns are now so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies. Companies can clearly see that America wants normalcy back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are now the trend, not the anomaly. We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.”
Robby keep up the good work to keep social politics out of our companies. Now, if we could just keep social politics out of our government.
LB #3
I’ve long dismissed ordering a $10 sandwich and being too lazy to go a) make it yourself or b) have it delivered to you for $17 plus delivery fee of $3 plus technology fee of $4 plus driver gratuity of $6 and that same sandwich costing $30. As always, meaning I remember this fad in 2000 when people tried to deliver groceries and these companies all went broke. We are starting to see the fad dry up around the edges first and then it will hit like a tsunami and then people will have to go down to the deli like before. Just Eat takeaway has plans to delist from the London Stock Exchange. This from Ryan Browne at CNBC, “Just Eat Takeaway
will delist from the London Stock Exchange next month, in a blow to the U.K.’s ambitions to attract more high-growth tech firms to its stock market.
After completing a review of optimal listing venues, the Anglo-Dutch food delivery firm said Wednesday that it intends to delist from London’s stock exchange, making Amsterdam Just Eat Takeaway.com’s sole trading venue…Earlier this month, Just Eat Takeaway.com said it would sell its GrubHub arm to New York-based online takeout startup Wonder for $650 million — a huge discount compared to the $7.3 billion the firm paid for the U.S. food delivery app.”
Ouch, that’s over a 90% loss. It turns out that someone ran up the stock of something ridiculous, luckily for them there is so much money floating through the Trump/Biden system that someone else bought it at the top, then rode the thing down like 1929. It starts with a ridiculous $30 deli sandwich, but financial failures such as this are going to be much more common.
Looking Forwards…
LF#1
Speaking of financial failures, we have written about Europe’s largest market Germany extensively over the last month or so, but we have forgotten the prettier baby sister of Europe, France. This from William Horobin at Bloomberg, “France’s efforts to repair its public finances are threatening a new political and financial crisis, prompting investors to sell some of the nation’s assets.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s attempts to stem the nation’s rising debt are faltering as opposition lawmakers threaten to eject him from office in order to stymie the 2025 budget bill.
The uncertainty has led to a selloff of French assets, widening the gap between the country’s financing costs and Germany’s to levels not seen since the euro’s debt crisis more than a decade ago.”
Like in Germany, the government is very split with the socialists thinking that they can keep spending their way to retirement. However, the economics of Europe are bad, very bad. Furthermore, as a condition of belonging in the Euro system the nation’s have to have their debts in order as a percentage of their economies. France is failing at that. The far right from France like the far right of Germany have both said the spending has to stop. I would be considered far right if I lived in Europe because I say the same thing here. Here in America, I am just considered heartless. I keep saying there are consequences for these ridiculous government policies and this is what Horobin writes, “Selling of French assets has hurt banking stocks and pushed up the premium on 10-year government bonds over German equivalents to the highest level since 2012 and caused French borrowing costs to match those of Greece. France’s benchmark equity index is on track for its worst year relative to European shares since 2010. Even before the political turbulence of the last weeks, France’s finances were a growing concern for investors as plans to reduce debt slipped off course at the end of 2024. With tax revenues far below estimates, the government now expects the budget deficit to reach 6.1% of economic output this year instead of declining to 4.4% as initially planned.” Horobin and Samy Adghirni wrote a follow u piece and quote Bloomberg economist Eleonora Mavroeidi, “The government’s struggle to pass a budget for 2025 is spooking investors – even Antoine Armand, the finance minister, is flagging the danger. Frankly, there’s plenty more to worry about. The government’s fiscal plans are centered on a multi-year austerity program that will be extremely difficult to implement — we think it likely that debt will significantly overshoot the path outlined by the European Commission.”
Let me tell you something about government projections, they redefine incompetence. They couldn’t find a piece of ass in a donkey slaughterhouse.
LF#2
Speaking of government and asses, I bring you the state of Maryland. This from ZeroHedge, “Fiscally irresponsible policies pushed by far-left Democratic lawmakers have put Maryland, a deep-blue progressive state, into a projected death spiral, with some warning that the state could soon face its worst fiscal crisis in two decades.
“The overarching takeaway from today’s meeting is that there’s an enormous gap between the ongoing spending commitments the state has made and ongoing revenues,” David Romans, a Department of Legislative Services budget analyst, said in a presentation for lawmakers, including members of the Joint Spending Affordability Committee, earlier this month.
Romans warned the state will face “a significant challenge” in paying for those commitments.
“By fiscal 2030 — the final year of our forecast — we are showing the state will only have enough revenue to cover 84% of the expenses we’re projecting the state to incur,” Romans said, adding, “That is the largest gap that we have seen in the last 20 years. It is more significant than the Great Recession.”
This isn’t good, it’s like salt in your orange juice. But like adding pepper to your OJ it is about to get worse. If, and it’s a big if, the DOGE committee is successful in draining the swamp, few states will feel the hurt as bad as Maryland. Many high-paying and totally unnecessary jobs that might face extinction are the domain of Maryland. Not a lot of people in Fargo consulting for the government. Not a lot of lobbyists in Fairbanks. But if you look at a map of Washington DC and look north, south, and east and you will see Maryland. This isn’t the rough streets of DC either, just past that out in the suburbs where entitlement and mimosas grow on trees. If you drain the swamp, the swamp is a lot of Maryland, and that 84% revenue shortage becomes even lower. States can’t print money, but they can beg for bailouts…Covid taught us that….
LF#3
The last gasps you are hearing aren’t the hosts of the View being appalled at Donald Trump’s cabinet selections, but the dying whimpers of Joe Biden’s four years. Just when I thought he couldn’t go any lower than the last president did in playing the I beg your pardon game. There is this from Akayla Gardner, “President Joe Biden signed a sweeping pardon for his son Hunter Biden, reversing his previous stance that he would not use his executive powers to aid his oldest-living child.
Biden justified the pardon by saying that the case againt his son was politically tinged, excessive and designed to “break” him and Hunter.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said in a written statement on Sunday. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong.”
Biden’s move marks a stunning decision by an outgoing president, coming just weeks before he is set to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump is set to take power. Trump has pardoned people close to him and has vowed to pardon those convicted of involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol in his second.
Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, in his first term and nominated Kushner recently as US ambassador to France.”
I guess there was something on that laptop. The lesson as always is nNever ever believe what the government tells you.
Sincerely Yours,
C Thomas Printer
The Dow Jones finished trading …at 44,910.
The 10-year Treasury bond is at …at 4.217%
The price of Brent Crude is … at $71.91 per barrel.
The price of gold is … at $2,656/oz.
The price of silver is … at $30.84/oz.
I leave you with this from the information superhighway, I sometimes wonder if its ignorance or apathy that destroying the world today, I don’t know and I don’t care.
Thank you for listening today and you can find all of our articles and more on our website cthomasprinter.com.