Quotes: jimgBiden administration “climate” and energy policies amounting to thousands of pages in regulations and hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and subsidies to uneconomic energy projects have been swiftly reversed. Examples in just the past few weeks include:
The announcement by the Department of Energy just yesterday (May 12) of no fewer than 47 regulatory reversals, covering everything from ovens. to dehumidifiers, to clothes washers and driers, to shower heads, to dishwashers, and much, much more.
“Climate fantasy”? The ideological rhetoric is excessive, I guess.
This is the intersection of economics and politics.
You and I believe most of these projects were uneconomic, but others disagree.
Canada’s Carney has always been WEF policy-minded (e.g., climate), but his latest answers to questions along these lines (reminding him of his books and previous speeches), but he says as Prime Minister, he has to be “pragmatic.”
I think he will be because (a) it takes forever to show economic benefits the WEF way, and (b) the world is watching. He has a minority government and an ultra-strong conservative majority in the natural resources-rich Western Canada provinces. The voters have spoken, and most wanted energy projects developed, starting ASAP.
I see that Thanasis (Θανάσης) is a Greek given name, short for Athanasios (Αθανάσιος), which can mean “eternal life” or “immortal”.
squarpeg1
May 9, 2025 3:10 pm
#46602
I have been selling my stocks as the market has come back. I am just very worried about who is running the ship here. I’m trying to grasp how we ended up in crazy town. I am not anti-republican. But everyday it feels like things are getting more unstable and off the rails. Today, “Trump Appoints Fox News’s Judge Jeanine Pirro To US Attorney’s Office In DC” When you see decisions like this happening all the time, you have to really ask yourself whether this is the guy that should be in charge of world economic order. I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore. I am selling the market so I can sleep at night. This will be my last post about it. Stay safe out there.
Take a Blow-Torch and Ram It UP EVERY ORIFICE DC Has & Then Some. Cheers.
squarpeg1
May 8, 2025 2:07 pm
#46593
Big news on UK trade deal…So what, complete non issue. The great leader needs to get to work on something that matters. He needs to get moving on this China trade or he is going to have a lot of very unhappy people other than me. Not that I do not understand the premise, just being handled in the most incompetent way. Hard for me to grasp the stupidity of it.
Russian civil aviation authorities suspended flights at Moscow’s Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky airports, as well as in Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Yaroslavl, Kazan, and other cities today after Ukraine launched its most extensive drone assault on Russia. This resulted in significant travel disruptions late Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to a representative of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, airport closures and flight cancellations were announced to guarantee the safety of civil aviation operations.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that 524 Ukrainian drones have been intercepted nationwide overnight, marking the largest series of drone strikes since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
Prominent Russian air carriers such as Aeroflot, Pobeda, and S7 have warned travelers to anticipate disruptions due to the cancellation of hundreds of flights scheduled for today.
Imagine the economic impact if the major US cities encountered a similar attack.
The world knows who was the adult in the room today.
This video at the end shows Carney’s leadership. “The US-Canada relationship is over. This is a tragedy.”
jimg
May 6, 2025 9:29 am
#46557
Ukraine’s $500 billion rare earths scam: they don’t exist, and we should know better Back to Washington then, where nobody in the mining industry, and even in the mining industry in the Ukraine, believes that Ukraine has huge reserves of rare earths. So industry insiders are perplexed with this $500 billion number that is thrown around now, and that Ukraine will sign a deal to pledge these vast reserves – which don’t exist – in exchange for debt forgiveness for everything up to now, and a blank check going forward. Ukraine doesn’t have it.
But let’s pretend they did. All the rare-earth production on the planet totals $15 billion per year. And let’s pretend, further, that Ukraine magically created 20% of the world’s rare earths and could be pulling them out of the ground starting right now. Ukraine’s output would be $3 billion a year, which divided into $500 billion is 166 years.
Just closed my wholesale website today. That generates about 50% of my income. Why shut it down? Well at the moment new product now costs me more than I have been selling it wholesale. Now my retail website has about the same margins as the old wholesale site. Not to often your product jumps 145% in cost in a day. I suppose I will eventually readjust everything or try to find another business. Shocking we are just left swinging in the wind on this. Should we spend days redoing everything only to find that tomorrow it has all changed again. Meanwhile the market is not connected to anything that is happening. Expect that will change as people wake up to what is headed downstream towards them.
jimg
May 1, 2025 10:24 am
#46508
Hidden Forces Apple podcast: How well the Strauss-Howe generational theory has tracked Trump’s first 100 days in office, How well it explains the political, social, and geopolitical upheavals we are experiencing and Where we are in the present cycle and how events could unfold from here.
Gold. My last gold purchase was three RCM 1 oz bars, Jan 13, 2024. Paid 2153.99 apiece and had to grit my teeth to spend that much. To duplicate that purchase today costs 3467.59 a bar, including premiums. I can’t bring myself to do it.
Have a Coin World magazine from Nov 2007 and the main article was about gold and they were complaining that it cost about 70,000 for 100 oz of gold. That purchase today would cost 350,000. Clearly, gold was the place to be for the past two decades.
“injecting uncertainty into the financial system is a public policy good.”
“…uncertainty reduces the Moral Hazard that leads to excess leverage, unhedged balance sheets, and worst of all, a more Negatively Convex risk profile.”
A shared view of some gold traders is that Yellen sold millions of toz gold in Dec 2023, March, and April 2024, and the Chinese bought it all. Where it came from, who knows, but it’s always seemed odd to me our treasury refuses to audit our gold, especially since the BOE came up short in January, and Germany wants to send a team on-site in NY to audit their gold. After seeing what DOGE uncovered, and other shocking examples of hubris and arrogance during the Biden years, including the sale of nearly half of our SPR oil, it wouldn’t surprise me if 50 or 100 million ounces or more had been sold to meet exigent needs over the last 70 years. Gold is a physical thing. It either exists or it doesn’t. Yet even after the Trump/Musk demands for an audit… crickets.
CBOE Gold Volatility Index (^GVZ) spiked close to 40 in 2011 during the U.S. debt ceiling crisis while the gold price ran up 35 percent to its’ peak in late August. We had a similar run up in the gold price in 2025 and yet the CBOE Gold Volatility Index (^GVZ) has only peaked at about 28.
Against the backdrop of the turmoil in financial markets and in light of the widely circulated “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System” by Steven Miran and the recent article by Michale Pettis in the FT entitled “The US would be better off without the global dollar” where questioning the global credibility of the U.S dollar, the fact the gold vol remains in the mid 20s makes no sense.
Americans should understand that Carney’s message is receiving top marks in most of the world’s capitals. It’s a new world, and Trump will not be King.
Canada’s news stations are declaring Carney’s Liberals the new government of Canada thanks entirely to Trump.
With huge wins across the country, Poilievre’s Conservatives did extremely well — except for the two reasons they lost (if they did in fact lose):
Massive collapse of the NDP, which is the trade union’s party whose members switched to Carney as he might stand up more to Trump killing Canada’s auto industry.
Quebec’s separatist BQ lost about 25% of their seats because Quebecois were worried that if Trump conquered Canada, the French-Canadian culture and protections under the Constitution would be lost forever.
There is likely a minority government. If so, they are not assured of lasting the full 5 years.
The NDP and BQ supporters will return to their ways in future elections. Today’s vote was a one-time reaction to support Carney in his fight to save Canada from Trump. It’s that simple.
Not considering the Trump factor, Carney will return to the Trudeau approach to tax and spend. More unproductive ESG and climate change investment. Carney has a PhD in sucking and blowing. He’s a master of the forked tongue. I am disappointed with the result. But I do look forward to his confrontations with Trump. Under Carney, I expect Canada will rush into trade and military agreements with the UK and Europe. I expect news on this front almost immediately. Even today, Trump referred to Canada as the 51st state and those are fighting words in Canada.
Consider this as anecdotal evidence that Trump has destroyed the US-Canada relationship: the Duty Free store at the border near Buffalo was put into receivership today. Finished. No customers going south. Tariffed to death as well. I pointed out in a blog previously that every year at March Break the lineup at the border control station was clogged over many lanes as far as you could see. This year, drivers went straight to the station. Zero traffic.
No Canadian wanted this fight. But it’s on. It’s no surprise to Canadians that after 100 days in office, Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president in 80 years.
jimg
April 28, 2025 7:38 pm
#46467
Michael McNair: The Sovereign Wealth Effect: America’s New Tool for Rebalancing the Global Trading System
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Quotes: “I shared what I learned in my book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and my hope is that this animation gives people an easy way to understand the key ideas from the book in a simple and entertaining way. In the first 18 minutes, you’ll get the gist of what drives the “Big Cycle” of rise and decline of nations through time and where we now are in that cycle. If you give me 20 minutes more to watch the whole thing, and I will show you how the big cycle worked across the last 500 years of history—and what the current world leading power, the United States, needs to do to remain strong”
It just strikes me as odd how this market hangs on every little word from Trump. When he said tariffs with China will be much lower than 145%. I didn’t go buy the market as everyone else seems to have done. I contacted my suppliers in China and said. “hold every order” I am going to bet every other importer large and small did the same thing. After all he just telegraphed we will not have to pay 145% at some point (unknown) in the future. I’m not going to pay the highest prices ever if he says they are going way down. So it is all stopped now. Nothing is coming in. You would think that the most important priority would be a china deal. Did you happen to catch Treasury Secretary Bessent on some of these talk shows?. It is like he is living in another world, its up to china now he says. He had some lame non tariff talks with china, he claimed he didn’t know if the President is speaking to Xi. What in the world is going on?
I have shared the teaching of Master Shi in multiple posts. This is a long interview and he revisits many of his wise learnings. If you have an itch that tells you there is something missing in your life. Or self doubt clouds your journey, I highly recommend this video. https://youtu.be/atejm2w2jWY
Quotes:
jimgBiden administration “climate” and energy policies amounting to thousands of pages in regulations and hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and subsidies to uneconomic energy projects have been swiftly reversed. Examples in just the past few weeks include:
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-5-13-as-the-federal-government-abandons-the-climate-fantasy-new-york-doubles-down
The Dem WordPress filter held this up. LOL.
“Climate fantasy”? The ideological rhetoric is excessive, I guess.
This is the intersection of economics and politics.
You and I believe most of these projects were uneconomic, but others disagree.
Canada’s Carney has always been WEF policy-minded (e.g., climate), but his latest answers to questions along these lines (reminding him of his books and previous speeches), but he says as Prime Minister, he has to be “pragmatic.”
I think he will be because (a) it takes forever to show economic benefits the WEF way, and (b) the world is watching. He has a minority government and an ultra-strong conservative majority in the natural resources-rich Western Canada provinces. The voters have spoken, and most wanted energy projects developed, starting ASAP.
A wonderful story from one of you.
Serious health issues do not stop people from enjoying a good life. https://www.facebook.com/thanasis.gadanidis.
We first met on a bus to Whistler. He sounded keen on the market, and then he said he was on his way to my conference.
I see that Thanasis (Θανάσης) is a Greek given name, short for Athanasios (Αθανάσιος), which can mean “eternal life” or “immortal”.
I have been selling my stocks as the market has come back. I am just very worried about who is running the ship here. I’m trying to grasp how we ended up in crazy town. I am not anti-republican. But everyday it feels like things are getting more unstable and off the rails. Today, “Trump Appoints Fox News’s Judge Jeanine Pirro To US Attorney’s Office In DC” When you see decisions like this happening all the time, you have to really ask yourself whether this is the guy that should be in charge of world economic order. I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore. I am selling the market so I can sleep at night. This will be my last post about it. Stay safe out there.
Soooooo, I suspect we’re not going to agree on much.
I live a few miles outside the ‘Circle of Doom’ ( DC beltway ) and I Hope Judge Jeanine along with
https://x.com/mrddmia
https://x.com/jeffclarkus AND Others
Take a Blow-Torch and Ram It UP EVERY ORIFICE DC Has & Then Some. Cheers.
Big news on UK trade deal…So what, complete non issue. The great leader needs to get to work on something that matters. He needs to get moving on this China trade or he is going to have a lot of very unhappy people other than me. Not that I do not understand the premise, just being handled in the most incompetent way. Hard for me to grasp the stupidity of it.
Russia is under a major drone attack.
News Report:
Imagine the economic impact if the major US cities encountered a similar attack.
Outstanding example of leadership.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OukxQBhr9JA
The world knows who was the adult in the room today.
This video at the end shows Carney’s leadership. “The US-Canada relationship is over. This is a tragedy.”
Ukraine’s $500 billion rare earths scam: they don’t exist, and we should know better
Back to Washington then, where nobody in the mining industry, and even in the mining industry in the Ukraine, believes that Ukraine has huge reserves of rare earths. So industry insiders are perplexed with this $500 billion number that is thrown around now, and that Ukraine will sign a deal to pledge these vast reserves – which don’t exist – in exchange for debt forgiveness for everything up to now, and a blank check going forward. Ukraine doesn’t have it.
But let’s pretend they did. All the rare-earth production on the planet totals $15 billion per year. And let’s pretend, further, that Ukraine magically created 20% of the world’s rare earths and could be pulling them out of the ground starting right now. Ukraine’s output would be $3 billion a year, which divided into $500 billion is 166 years.
https://kdwalmsley.substack.com/p/ukraines-500-billion-rare-earths
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tILXLxMTmgA
Dr. Peter Attia’s Perspective on ApoB and Lp(a) (“Lipoprotein Little a”)
ApoB and Lp(a) as Cardiovascular Risk Factors
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/dr-peter-attias-perspective-on-A4NCBbaYRuuWAssHzG6F5Q
Just closed my wholesale website today. That generates about 50% of my income. Why shut it down? Well at the moment new product now costs me more than I have been selling it wholesale. Now my retail website has about the same margins as the old wholesale site. Not to often your product jumps 145% in cost in a day. I suppose I will eventually readjust everything or try to find another business. Shocking we are just left swinging in the wind on this. Should we spend days redoing everything only to find that tomorrow it has all changed again. Meanwhile the market is not connected to anything that is happening. Expect that will change as people wake up to what is headed downstream towards them.
Hidden Forces Apple podcast:
How well the Strauss-Howe generational theory has tracked Trump’s first 100 days in office,
How well it explains the political, social, and geopolitical upheavals we are experiencing and
Where we are in the present cycle and how events could unfold from here.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trumps-first-100-days-and-what-comes-after-neil-howe/id1205359334?i=1000705666986
Ray Dalio: “… what drives the “Big Cycle” of rise and decline of nations through time and where we now are in that cycle.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8
Scott Bessent leaked inside information to Wall Street:
https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250424196/treasury-chief-bessents-briefing-to-private-bank-event-draws-scrutiny
Gold. My last gold purchase was three RCM 1 oz bars, Jan 13, 2024. Paid 2153.99 apiece and had to grit my teeth to spend that much. To duplicate that purchase today costs 3467.59 a bar, including premiums. I can’t bring myself to do it.
Have a Coin World magazine from Nov 2007 and the main article was about gold and they were complaining that it cost about 70,000 for 100 oz of gold. That purchase today would cost 350,000. Clearly, gold was the place to be for the past two decades.
Negative GDP Q1 so what does he do? Blames Joe Biden of course.
Alberta Separation
https://www.albertaseparation.com/
update:
https://x.com/ikwilson/status/1917329295506301090
Trudeau appointed 100 of the total 105 Senators.
They can stay till 75 and can’t be removed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Senate_of_Canada_appointments_by_prime_minister
Trudeau appointed 6 of 9 Supreme Court Justices.
They can stay till 75 and can’t be removed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_justices_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_Canada
Trudeau is going to be back before you know it.
I learned a new word today … ” Tandemocracy ” … Trudeau & Carney.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medvedev%E2%80%93Putin_tandemocracy
“injecting uncertainty into the financial system is a public policy good.”
“…uncertainty reduces the Moral Hazard that leads to excess leverage, unhedged balance sheets, and worst of all, a more Negatively Convex risk profile.”
https://www.convexitymaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Convexity-Maven-Chekhovs-Gun.pdf
“Major Federal Project Office” with a “one project, one review” mandate likely equates to Federal Approval for friends and family? Hope I am wrong.
What Mark Carney’s victory means for the mining industry
https://www.mining.com/what-mark-carneys-victory-means-for-the-mining-industry/
Michael Ignatieff: Canada’s election results aren’t what they seem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feuLjyYwUXI
A shared view of some gold traders is that Yellen sold millions of toz gold in Dec 2023, March, and April 2024, and the Chinese bought it all. Where it came from, who knows, but it’s always seemed odd to me our treasury refuses to audit our gold, especially since the BOE came up short in January, and Germany wants to send a team on-site in NY to audit their gold.
After seeing what DOGE uncovered, and other shocking examples of hubris and arrogance during the Biden years, including the sale of nearly half of our SPR oil, it wouldn’t surprise me if 50 or 100 million ounces or more had been sold to meet exigent needs over the last 70 years.
Gold is a physical thing. It either exists or it doesn’t. Yet even after the Trump/Musk demands for an audit… crickets.
Elon Musk on the biggest graft in U.S. history:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1912942884132933799
CBOE Gold Volatility Index (^GVZ) spiked close to 40 in 2011 during the U.S. debt ceiling crisis while the gold price ran up 35 percent to its’ peak in late August.
We had a similar run up in the gold price in 2025 and yet the CBOE Gold Volatility Index (^GVZ) has only peaked at about 28.
Against the backdrop of the turmoil in financial markets and in light of the widely circulated “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System” by Steven Miran and the recent article by Michale Pettis in the FT entitled “The US would be better off without the global dollar” where questioning the global credibility of the U.S dollar, the fact the gold vol remains in the mid 20s makes no sense.
A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System”
https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf
“The US would be better off without the global dollar”
https://www.ft.com/content/a3fb6b82-4a51-4a5c-b831-f755518f5863
About the US-Canada relationship, this video says it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-li5aUGrjXw
Americans should understand that Carney’s message is receiving top marks in most of the world’s capitals. It’s a new world, and Trump will not be King.
Canada’s news stations are declaring Carney’s Liberals the new government of Canada thanks entirely to Trump.
With huge wins across the country, Poilievre’s Conservatives did extremely well — except for the two reasons they lost (if they did in fact lose):
There is likely a minority government. If so, they are not assured of lasting the full 5 years.
The NDP and BQ supporters will return to their ways in future elections. Today’s vote was a one-time reaction to support Carney in his fight to save Canada from Trump. It’s that simple.
Not considering the Trump factor, Carney will return to the Trudeau approach to tax and spend. More unproductive ESG and climate change investment. Carney has a PhD in sucking and blowing. He’s a master of the forked tongue. I am disappointed with the result. But I do look forward to his confrontations with Trump. Under Carney, I expect Canada will rush into trade and military agreements with the UK and Europe. I expect news on this front almost immediately. Even today, Trump referred to Canada as the 51st state and those are fighting words in Canada.
Consider this as anecdotal evidence that Trump has destroyed the US-Canada relationship: the Duty Free store at the border near Buffalo was put into receivership today. Finished. No customers going south. Tariffed to death as well. I pointed out in a blog previously that every year at March Break the lineup at the border control station was clogged over many lanes as far as you could see. This year, drivers went straight to the station. Zero traffic.
No Canadian wanted this fight. But it’s on. It’s no surprise to Canadians that after 100 days in office, Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president in 80 years.
Michael McNair: The Sovereign Wealth Effect: America’s New Tool for Rebalancing the Global Trading System
https://medium.com/@mcnai002/the-sovereign-wealth-effect-americas-new-tool-for-rebalancing-the-global-trading-system-363176816035
Ray Dalio:
It’s Too Late: The Changes Are Coming
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-too-late-changes-coming-ray-dalio-jtwwe
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Quotes: “I shared what I learned in my book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and my hope is that this animation gives people an easy way to understand the key ideas from the book in a simple and entertaining way. In the first 18 minutes, you’ll get the gist of what drives the “Big Cycle” of rise and decline of nations through time and where we now are in that cycle. If you give me 20 minutes more to watch the whole thing, and I will show you how the big cycle worked across the last 500 years of history—and what the current world leading power, the United States, needs to do to remain strong”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8
It just strikes me as odd how this market hangs on every little word from Trump. When he said tariffs with China will be much lower than 145%. I didn’t go buy the market as everyone else seems to have done. I contacted my suppliers in China and said. “hold every order” I am going to bet every other importer large and small did the same thing. After all he just telegraphed we will not have to pay 145% at some point (unknown) in the future. I’m not going to pay the highest prices ever if he says they are going way down. So it is all stopped now. Nothing is coming in. You would think that the most important priority would be a china deal. Did you happen to catch Treasury Secretary Bessent on some of these talk shows?. It is like he is living in another world, its up to china now he says. He had some lame non tariff talks with china, he claimed he didn’t know if the President is speaking to Xi. What in the world is going on?
I have shared the teaching of Master Shi in multiple posts. This is a long interview and he revisits many of his wise learnings. If you have an itch that tells you there is something missing in your life. Or self doubt clouds your journey, I highly recommend this video.
https://youtu.be/atejm2w2jWY