I didn't realize until today Kevin Warsh - soon to be Fed chairman - is Ron Lauder's son in law (President of the World Jewish Congress & one of Trump's biggest donors). Apparently they are also the masterminds behind the proposed Greenland takeover. Trump always does the bidding of his paymasters.

Reminder that Trump wants to put a BlackRock executive who wants to return to Bernanke-era QE policies in as Federal Reserve Chairman. Does this even need further comment?

I don't even have any problem with people speculating on cryptocurrency provided that's what they want to do. The main disappointment for me about it is that it mostly has, up to the current date, been used primarily, for that purpose, rather than as money. I understand that some of the people in this community are trying to change that. But it has been a slow process. What I don't understand is why crypto people don't get into other forms of investing too. Like why not branch out, and get into other classes of investments? If you had speculated on gold or silver recently, you could have done very well. Doing this would also help crypto people get outside of their bubble, so to speak. Despite pretensions, they are nowhere near the point of "breakaway civilization" yet, nor even outside of the system of control in any meaningful way. To think otherwise is delusion.

Before anyone posts anything from X as if it were fact, remember that AI deep fakes spread virally there AND they do not allow links of any kind without de-boosting your account, so there is every incentive for the site to become a fake news factory. No matter what anyone else says, until they fix this problem, that site is fundamentally flawed and nothing from there can be trusted. You are free to abandon your rational faculties if you choose, I will not.

This is an example of why Kanye is a great artist, as I said some time ago.

Trump: the good, the bad and the ugly. Good -Openly imperialist, e.g. the actions in VZ, Greenland, Iran. Good in the sense that the mask is off. America is now openly, unapologetically imperialist and cannot roll it back. From a realpolitik standpoint, WWIV ( or is it V?) Is here and such actions confirm it. Of course, this is very ominous. -Crackdowns on illegal immigration, though not as thorough as it should be. -Some of RFK's actions regarding vaccines and food. Bad -Zionism. -Idiotic policies reflecting on rushing senility: e.g. inflation is done, not enough talent in this country, I will support amnesty for illegals, etc. This is very bad on a number of levels including popular support for his policies, compromise of national security in an already fraught time, etc. If he keeps this up he could end up in big trouble in a few years, should his support fade among the public and his enemies end up back in power. Ugly -Persecution of his enemies and weaponizing the Feds against them. But they are mostly assholes anyway so I also don't care.

Doing some more reading about the troubles in Iran, I can see it is not all Westerners agitating this time. Iran is experiencing hyperinflation and many of the middle class are getting wiped out by it. There is widespread discontent with the regime. Of course, the Westerners operating within Iran are taking advantage of it to try and push regime change, as thay has been a goal for a long time (since the 1990s PNAC "hot pursuit" doctrine was formulated at least). I still don't think a Western puppet government is the most likely outcome of this situation.

AHH ! They have finally fixed the bug in Nostter that made the feed inoperative. Now I can browse Nostr in my desktop again.

There was a lot of paranoia from the 2010s to early 2020s about central banks outright taking over states. But another possibility is that as a state of emergency or age of decline unfolds, the finance class is increasingly targeted by the state. I don't think Trump's action will succeed this time, but the precedent has been set and I do expect states to get more aggressive with central banking as time goes on. To use another Roman parallel, remember that financiers (the class of equites) got murdered and looted on a wide scale in the late Republican era whenever there was a period of crisis.

Justice Department Subpoenas the Fed, Threatens Powell with Criminal Indictment. Powell Comes out Swinging. Stock Futures Tank | Wolf Street

What seems to have happened in the past decade & accelerating since the 2020s is that, as the neoliberalism consensus collapses, the former veneer of democracy, free speech and the rule of law has been completely abrogated. In its place, we have entered an openly imperial era in which the previous verities mean little, even if they are still used for rhetorical purposes. Recent actions in Venezuela, or the rolling unrest in US cities and response to it are examples of the new reality. The picture is complicated by the fact that, as late as probably the 2000s, there was basically a consensus among the elites that kept things stable. But more and more, the system has fallen into factions which disagree about the course of action. These factions existed before but the tension was less. Now, it has reached the point where the stability of the state is threatened. For example, factions disagreed whether we should focus on foreign or domestic policy, whether we should have mass immigration or a more restricted system, and so on. During the heyday of neoliberalism, the "open society" advocates mostly won out. That is less common now. But now, it reaches the point where political factions try to achieve the most extreme outcomes in the shortest amount of time, knowing the limitations of term of office, which still exists as an artifact of the democratic-republican age. Which, I must stress, is an *anomaly* of Western history, the largest part of which was aristocratic, monarchical, or some combination thereof. Given current trends it is probably leading to the dictator for life model as has already been adopted in Russia or China. Until that time, we can expect escalating chaos. None of this is exactly new - the late Roman republic would have found such a situation very recognizable. We are not Romans but humans are broadly the same across ages and there are "rhymes" as they say.

Pay particularly close attention to what he says about corporate profits, public debt and the massive government deficits. This bubble *requires* expanding deficits ad infinitum. Which of course *ensures* both high inflation & the continued decline of the USD as a reserve currency (mostly to the benefit of our nominal allies).

Hussman Funds

How the Bubble Manipulates Time - Hussman Funds

The defining feature of every bubble is the same: a growing inconsistency between the long-term returns that investors expect in their heads - base...