Bill Cara

Life & Politics

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“Goldman Sachs has a pitch for investors: It’s more than just a bank. It’s a leading alternative asset manager, and thus, its chiefs need to be paid like they’re at one.”

“Shareholders are set to vote on Wednesday on whether to approve $160 million in special bonuses for Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and President John Waldron, my colleague Todd Gillespie reported.”

https://archive.is/26flP

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“Eric Schmidt says intelligence is about to decouple from us.”

“The computers are now doing self-improvement.. They don’t have to listen to us anymore.”

“Within six years: a mind smarter than the sum of humans — scaled, recursive, free. We have no language for what’s coming.”

https://x.com/vitrupo/status/1911934053378588842

will law

Could be unlimited upside.

squarpeg1

Just an observation. My business is importing various jewelry components from china and then reselling them. Couple weeks ago I placed a bunch of orders to come fedx express and they arrived yesterday. I did not get any additional charges on my shipments. My fedx driver said they were very very busy with people doing the same thing as I was. Today and from now on I believe we are in uncharted waters. Because that appears to have ended. One of my suppliers is now only selling from stock. They do not want to produce anything more in advance. They also told me they are no longer shipping through DHL or Fedx. Everything for some reason must go through the postal system. I can’t express to you how long and fouled up things will get if that is the case. Our postal system has been slowly dismantled beginning with the first Trump administration. Requiring them to collect duty and remit it to the treasury will be a nightmare. I have another supplier I work with in Hong Kong. I use Hong Kong post from that location. Today I read Hong Kong post will no longer except shipments of product to the USA. Anything requiring customs to be involved in they no longer want to deal with.. I don’t really think people have any idea what could happen if Trump does not immediately fix the tariff issue. The fact of the matter is even though the price of my product will more then double, I have serious reservation whether it will be able to get into the county even if I can get a carrier. What I think is about to happen is something very similar to what went on during covid. Everything is made in china, I really do not see how the USA would win this Tariff war. I was also heard some very defiant talk from suppliers. Something similar that I hear from my Canadian friends. I really think things could get much worse economically very quickly. A bit surprised the market has held up this well so far, I sort of doubt that will continue unless our fearless leader has some major change of direction or breakthrough allowing him to claim victory.

Kyle

IMHO it’s NOT a Free Speech issue. It’s a How Many Billions of Tax-Payer $ should we be sending to xyz university per year???? I think we need to “ZERO-Baseline” them ALL. GO Back to ZERO per Year and Let’s Restart from There.

Kyle

Probably Churches as well. Lots of scams there too I suspect.

There was an old CIA guy I worked with over @ NRO … Frank S.
“All you have to do is scratch a little below the surface and you find out some BS going on.”

goldbug58

Sounds like someone wants Jay Powell gone pretty bad. Does no one in the WH understand that markets cannot be forced to do their bidding? They want lower interest rates, that doesn’t mean you just arbitrarily lower them with zero regard for monetary policy and market outlooks.

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Felix Zulauf 3 for 3 from his market projection in December 2024.

“He usually only does public interviews once a year, but given the recent market turbulence, he has decided to return early to help investors make sense of what’s most likely to happen next from here.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUwgobvt-Jo

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Justice Alito’s dissenting statement in Alien Enemies Act case
After detailing how SCOTUS ignored controlling law, he closed with: “Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law.”

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_22p3.pdf

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Click bait headline from Bloomberg?

Zuckerberg, Dimon Are Among Top Sellers Ahead of Tariff Stock Rout

https://archive.is/azkai#selection-1201.0-1201.66

Grok summary:

 The total dollar amount of shares sold by 3,867 “insiders” (per Washington Service data) between January 2025 and April 2 is $15.5 billion.

BBG continues: “Insider selling overall was down compared with the first quarter of 2024, which saw 4,702 insiders unload shares worth a total of $28.1 billion, according to Washington Service.

Bill Cara

Billcara.com gets Spam attacks at least twice daily from Binance account opening-related email. They are creative and get through too but are quite dated so readers don’t see them. It’s just frustrating there are so many wasters in the world.

goldbug58

Toronto Maple Leafs hosting Ottawa in Game 1 of their playoff series tonight at 7pm. Two good teams. I always pull for the Leafs, which last won a cup in 1967, a 58-year drought.

Bill Cara

6-2 Toronto

Great game.

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“You could do the earliest Fed nomination and create a shadow Fed chair. And based on the concept of forward guidance, no one is really going to care what Jerome Powell has to say anymore.” — Bessent, Barron’s interview, Oct. 9, 2024

https://www.barrons.com/articles/trump-fed-chair-powell-fire-4b79079f

https://archive.is/1tAXd

“If you believe forward guidance is good, why can’t you give forward guidance on who the Fed chair is going to be. You could do one of two things: The current Fed chair could be reappointed, so you’ve created a path there. Or the new Fed chair nominee would give forward guidance beyond the current Fed chair’s sell-by date.” — Bessent, Bloomberg Radio on Oct. 11, 2024

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-10-11/have-roadmap-for-trump-economic-policy-bessent-video

NYUGrad

In my bar theory, a group opined Trump could be trying to Franchise pieces of the govt and collect a forever royalty for his family tree. If he can do this with the Fed it would be the Pinnacle of the Trump franchise. 

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that President Donald Trump and his team would “continue to study” whether Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could be fired. – CNBC

Screenshot_20250418-121656
Last edited 4 days ago by NYUGrad
goldbug58

USD-to-silver ratio 1,043/oz.
USD-to-gold ratio 8,077/oz.

I’m still influenced by The Death of Money, describing the collapse of the German mark in the 1920-1923 Weimar republic. In October 1923, Germany experienced the 4th-highest inflation rate in history, 29,500% for the month. Banknotes of 1924 approached denominations in the trillions.

Milliarden = Billion
Billionen = Trillion

goldbug58

Someone mentioned US debt last week which made me visit the US debt clock, currently stands at 36.74 Trillion. I guess the 36 Tril number was passed some time ago with little notice in the press. According to my research, Trump 1.0 and Biden together added some 16 Trillion in just eight years. This is never getting better. My strategy is to hold on to gold bullion and own some shares in a precious metals mining fund.

goldbug58

There is a good documentary series if you search youtube for Planet Finance. I especially enjoyed segments 1 and 2 which discussed the oil fiasco of April 2020 when it traded negative 40 a barrel. There is a segment on Mrs. Watanabe the Japanese housewife currency traders. Very well done series.

goldbug58
Chris

Wondering where else this is happening. This is a pretty devasting development for small businesses out in the middle of the IndoPacific trying to support an ongoing pretty large military buildup….

The U.S. Small Business Administration Guam Branch office has closed operations on the island. 

KUAM confirmed the closure took effect by the close of business day today. 

Branch Manager Ken Lujan told KUAM via email the Guam branch office is now closed. 

He advised anyone needing assistance to contact the SBA Hawaii District Office at 808-541-2990 or [email protected].

The closure of the Guam office comes as the U.S. Small Business Administration announced its plans for an agency-wide reorganization.

Officials noted recently, “To return to its founding mission of empowering small businesses, and to restore accountability to taxpayers, the agency will reduce its workforce by 43% – ending the expansive social policy agenda of the prior administration, eliminating non-essential roles, and returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels.”

Officials added, “The strategic reorganization will begin a turnaround for the agency by restoring the efficiency of the first Trump administration, as well as its focus on promoting small businesses. Core services to the public, including the agency’s loan guarantee and disaster assistance programs, as well as its field and veteran operations, will not be impacted.”

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The Limits of Chip Export Controls in Meeting the China Challenge

https://www.csis.org/analysis/limits-chip-export-controls-meeting-china-challenge

NYUGrad

Great writing. Yes they can. Just like the French revolution where the public thought they won and simply got new masters, the same thing will happen in America. We will go from far right to far left until the pot bursts. Then a new form of America will emerge and a rebranded suppression will follow.

Elites eating the Elites. The bottom 99% will still be the bottom 99%.

Last edited 6 days ago by NYUGrad
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This public resource tracks legal challenges to Trump administration actions.

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

will law

Thank you. Their podcast sounds great.

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China Official Calls US ‘Enemy’ Targeting Hong Kong’s Survival

“The US isn’t after our tariffs — it is after our very survival,” Xia Baolong, who heads the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and is based in Beijing

BBG: https://archive.is/AfDHv#selection-1459.0-1459.151