WSJ: French Shipping Giant CMA CGM Pledges $20 Billion Investment in U.S.The world’s No. 3 container line’s pledge comes as Trump pushes to revive the U.S. shipbuilding and maritime industry
Factories across the world are growing increasingly idle. Global industrial capacity utilization (CAPU) has fallen significantly, and a rising unemployment rate has followed suit, signalling that the available factors of production globally are progressively more redundant. The reason this is relevant is that since 1990, this thirty-four year correlation is consistent with the U.S. experience where data has been available for seven decades. As such, CAPU appears to be the dominant supply-side variable in determining inflation in the United States, China, Japan, U.K. and the EU.
In the United States, CAPU has plummeted to levels lower than at the start of all of the cyclical recessions since 1967.
My cystoscopy procedure this morning was painful and discovered several stones.
This was my fifth cystoscopy in a year, and I had never seen stones while watching the procedure on the monitor. The stones looked like gold-colored pearls. The urologist used a mechanical crushing device (lithotriptor?) at the end of the cystoscope to grab them and, in one case, pull one out of a crevice of the bladder. Then they disappeared. He said he couldn’t find them and I should look in my pee to discover the gold. He always has a sense of humor. Today I had removed my shoes against instructions and was sent back to put them on. His joke, “You always need shoes in the operating room because you don’t want your feet to get wet when it rains.” The truth is he doesn’t want to be working beside smelly socks. But this was much longer and more painful (8 out of 10) than all the others except the one when he tried to push through the cancer he found in the ureter to get into the kidney. That procedure was a 10 out of 10 on the pain index because there is only a mild topical anaesthetic used, and the operation is almost always a simple one done quickly.
Because my urologist is also an oncologist, I asked him about the thyroid nodule that might be cancer found yesterday at another hospital. He put my mind at ease by saying that thyroid cancer caught early has one of the highest survival rates of any cancer. I hope I don’t go down that road, needing surgery. That would be three types of cancer operated on by surgeons in three different hospitals (Toronto General, Women’s College, and St. Joseph’s) in one year. And I had a colonoscopy in Mississauga.
Ironically, I feel 100% healthy, and in the best physical shape in decades. Pat will tell you that I have no problem working on a computer 18 hours a day, and the only time I seem to stop is when she drives me to a hospital or doctor’s office. That’s my life and I enjoy it, or I would be doing other things.
Sixty years ago I started in Science at the University of Toronto. I wanted to be a doctor. Now, I’m just happy to have the services of so many outstanding ones. Life is good.
Comment made to me this morning from a “smart money” European.
Trump keeps tossing boulders into the ocean and standing back watching the fall-out.
I don’t think he’s deranged, he’s very smart. However, he, Vance, and Musk are proving to be a toxic mix of dangerous individuals.
It has certainly rocked the world order and made Europe sit up and look at itself.
We here in Europe have relied on the US for too long, we need to become far more independent.
This will be the catalyst for change. However, the Ukraine situation and Russia’s aggression threatens us all.
jimg
March 5, 2025 9:49 am
#45223
Feb 28, 2025
The New York Fed Staff Nowcast for 2025:Q1 is 2.9%, with the 50% probability interval at [2.0, 4.0] and the 68% interval at [1.4, 4.5].
News from this week’s data releases left the estimate largely unchanged.
Negative surprises from personal consumption and housing data were largely offset by positive surprises from disposable personal income and manufacturers’ durable goods data.
Howard Lutnick, through his firm Cantor Fitzgerald, acquired a 5% stake in Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, valued at approximately $600 million
Tether owns approximately $113 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries.
Cantor Fitzgerald, a prominent financial services firm led by Howard Lutnick, manages Tether’s U.S. Treasury holdings
Tether has never passed a comprehensive third-party audit from a reputable auditing firm.
In January 2025, Tether announced that it would relocate its headquarters and subsidiaries from the British Virgin Islands to El Salvador after securing a digital asset service provider license there
Tether acquired a significant stake in Rumble through a $775 million strategic investment.
JD Vance trying to walk back his comment “US offers a better deal than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in over 30 years”. Only France and Britain have pledged peace-keeping troops. Vance says he didn’t mean France or Britain.
Is everyone in the White House a complete unqualified ass?
jimg
March 4, 2025 10:46 am
#45185
Aramco plans to cut its dividend by 32% in 2025. This would be a very strong indication the world’s largest oil company is tightening its belt in anticipation of lower oil prices.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick certainly is bright enough and a savvy enough businessman to understand what all of this means. He has a degree in Economics as well.
I respect him because he has faced his share of tragedy in life, he beat cancer and lost both his parents at a young age.
I just wonder if he’s just going to fall in line along with the rest.
Reading about a US importer with a 120,000 shipment enroute from China. Faces a 25,000 tariff (if implemented as planned).
He is asking the shipping company to offload his goods where the ship is currently in port (Norfolk Virginia) rather than sailing it up to Boston. Says it will be cheaper to get it the rest of the way by truck versus paying the 25 grand.
Note: the cost (tariff) is paid by the importer, NOT CHINA.
Americans are generally too goddam ignorant to understand any of this.
Reminder if you didn’t know. Trump will be addressing Congress Tuesday night. This will be a defacto State of the Union at 9pm ET.
I suspect a complete poop show and 1 man scolding the entire congress. When you corner him and attack him, he has shown his joy for escalation. It will be entertaining to say the least. (reminder I am neutral)
The tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China are set to begin tomorrow. I suspect they will go into affect (even temporarily) simply for the reason if they don’t, any future tariff threats won’t be taken seriously.
I also suspect for once, we may see a govt shutdown next week
There are multiple brush fires burning that can all escalate to a massive wild fire right now
One economist expressed the view that a 25% tariff on Canada would drive them into recession within 3 months. Trump just hates Trudeau.
jimg
March 3, 2025 10:47 am
#45136
More oil brought to market is good for cheap oil prices for every nation…..this is a big 180 for Mark Carney
“We as a nation need to build some new pipelines for conventional energy,” Carney said. He added his government would accelerate approvals for such pipelines and for clean energy.
He told the CBC this weekend that if he were prime minister his government would specifically accelerate approvals for pipelines, after years of the federal Liberal government cancelling or blocking several pipeline proposals.
An impressive group of world leaders in meetings this weekend in London stood arm in arm with Zelensky and Ukraine. They will provide the money, manpower and weapons that Ukraine needs to stop Russia from seizing its country.
Despite Trump’s allegiance to Putin, Ukraine’s friends have stood up to Putin and will back Ukraine until this war is over. In comparison to European allies (including Canada), Russia does not “have the cards” to win.
Trump can pull the USA out of NATO. Any further talk from him regarding Ukraine is merely to distract his voters that (a) he can’t find 100,000 illegals to deport nevertheless 13 million, and (b) he can’t cut $500B out of the budget nevertheless $2T.
His speech before Congress on Tuesday will sound like a campaign speech echo. We’ve heard it all before. What we will now see however is an old man, much like Biden, well past his best-before date.
Using 100 on a scale of satisfaction, I have found Grok 3 to be anywhere from +100 to -100. It can do a phenomenally helpful job or it will try to sell fantasy as fact. The latter applies no matter how defined and purposeful your prompt. The problem is not the user. It’s to do with the garbage library it builds from active users of X.
I understand its a great tool for systems and app programming. I am amazed at its “thinking” abilities, and I know that is a feature it will rapidly develop.
i know what I want and which AI platforms best meet my needs. I presently use about six almost daily. I can see some getting ahead and others falling behind the others in the features I need.
Wall Street is once again creating and selling securities backed by everything—the more creative the better—including corporate loans and consumer credit-card debt, lease payments on cars, airplanes and golf carts, and payments to data centers
New U.S. issuance of some of the most popular flavors of publicly traded structured credit hit record levels in 2024 New asset-backed securities totaled $335 billion 2024. Collateralized loan obligations rose to $201 billion
They Crashed the Economy in 2008. Now They’re Back and Bigger Than Ever. Wall Street expects to sell more than $335 billion in asset-backed debt this year. Remember that conference in ‘The Big Short’? It just drew a record 10,000
Made my day especially after reading the garbage last night that Trump/Vance demanded an apology from Zelensky for the mugging they gave him on global television.
Americans must understand that the world is bigger than Trump. If Trump does more of what the world witnessed yesterday, what the Norwegians did will be replicated worldwide.
WSJ: French Shipping Giant CMA CGM Pledges $20 Billion Investment in U.S.The world’s No. 3 container line’s pledge comes as Trump pushes to revive the U.S. shipbuilding and maritime industry
https://archive.is/DYbVR
Hoisington’s Q4 2024 Review and Outlook
https://hoisington.com/pdf/HIM2024Q4NP.pdf
US mulls plan to disrupt Iran’s oil by halting vessels at sea
https://www.aol.com/news/exclusive-us-mulls-plan-disrupt-110920807.html
Their free ride is over….
German Debt Has Worst Day Since Aftermath of Berlin Wall’s Fall
BBG: https://archive.is/UCiuj#selection-1387.0-1387.63
US mulls plan to disrupt Iran’s oil by halting vessels at sea
https://www.aol.com/news/exclusive-us-mulls-plan-disrupt-110920807.html
My cystoscopy procedure this morning was painful and discovered several stones.
This was my fifth cystoscopy in a year, and I had never seen stones while watching the procedure on the monitor. The stones looked like gold-colored pearls. The urologist used a mechanical crushing device (lithotriptor?) at the end of the cystoscope to grab them and, in one case, pull one out of a crevice of the bladder. Then they disappeared. He said he couldn’t find them and I should look in my pee to discover the gold. He always has a sense of humor. Today I had removed my shoes against instructions and was sent back to put them on. His joke, “You always need shoes in the operating room because you don’t want your feet to get wet when it rains.” The truth is he doesn’t want to be working beside smelly socks. But this was much longer and more painful (8 out of 10) than all the others except the one when he tried to push through the cancer he found in the ureter to get into the kidney. That procedure was a 10 out of 10 on the pain index because there is only a mild topical anaesthetic used, and the operation is almost always a simple one done quickly.
Because my urologist is also an oncologist, I asked him about the thyroid nodule that might be cancer found yesterday at another hospital. He put my mind at ease by saying that thyroid cancer caught early has one of the highest survival rates of any cancer. I hope I don’t go down that road, needing surgery. That would be three types of cancer operated on by surgeons in three different hospitals (Toronto General, Women’s College, and St. Joseph’s) in one year. And I had a colonoscopy in Mississauga.
Ironically, I feel 100% healthy, and in the best physical shape in decades. Pat will tell you that I have no problem working on a computer 18 hours a day, and the only time I seem to stop is when she drives me to a hospital or doctor’s office. That’s my life and I enjoy it, or I would be doing other things.
Sixty years ago I started in Science at the University of Toronto. I wanted to be a doctor. Now, I’m just happy to have the services of so many outstanding ones. Life is good.
Comment made to me this morning from a “smart money” European.
Trump keeps tossing boulders into the ocean and standing back watching the fall-out.
I don’t think he’s deranged, he’s very smart. However, he, Vance, and Musk are proving to be a toxic mix of dangerous individuals.
It has certainly rocked the world order and made Europe sit up and look at itself.
We here in Europe have relied on the US for too long, we need to become far more independent.
This will be the catalyst for change. However, the Ukraine situation and Russia’s aggression threatens us all.
Feb 28, 2025
https://resources.newyorkfed.org/research/policy/nowcast#/nowcast
Howard Lutnick, through his firm Cantor Fitzgerald, acquired a 5% stake in Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, valued at approximately $600 million
Tether owns approximately $113 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries.
Cantor Fitzgerald, a prominent financial services firm led by Howard Lutnick, manages Tether’s U.S. Treasury holdings
Tether has never passed a comprehensive third-party audit from a reputable auditing firm.
In January 2025, Tether announced that it would relocate its headquarters and subsidiaries from the British Virgin Islands to El Salvador after securing a digital asset service provider license there
Tether acquired a significant stake in Rumble through a $775 million strategic investment.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/howard-lutnick-through-his-fir-koqA4GMoQHKtJSn9mMIeFA
Trump Administration Readies Order to Bolster U.S. Shipbuilders, Punish China
A draft order includes measures such as raising revenue from Chinese ships and tax credits and grants for shipyards
https://archive.is/iVnlD#selection-5715.0-5719.115
Oil trader Pierre Andurand erased all his gains from last year in the first two months of 2025
https://archive.is/1TKeu#selection-1733.0-1733.94
JD Vance trying to walk back his comment “US offers a better deal than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in over 30 years”. Only France and Britain have pledged peace-keeping troops. Vance says he didn’t mean France or Britain.
Is everyone in the White House a complete unqualified ass?
Aramco plans to cut its dividend by 32% in 2025. This would be a very strong indication the world’s largest oil company is tightening its belt in anticipation of lower oil prices.
https://archive.is/wwbo3
Honda to produce next Civic in Indiana, not Mexico, due to US tariffs, sources say
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/honda-produce-next-civic-indiana-not-mexico-due-us-tariffs-sources-say-2025-03-03/
Trump goes forward with the 25% on Canada and Mexico, effective tomorrow, adds an additional 10% on China.
If parents keep threatening to take away their kids iPad and never do it, the kids will never believe the threat ever again.
It will be a miracle to stop Tariffs.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick certainly is bright enough and a savvy enough businessman to understand what all of this means. He has a degree in Economics as well.
I respect him because he has faced his share of tragedy in life, he beat cancer and lost both his parents at a young age.
I just wonder if he’s just going to fall in line along with the rest.
Reading about a US importer with a 120,000 shipment enroute from China. Faces a 25,000 tariff (if implemented as planned).
He is asking the shipping company to offload his goods where the ship is currently in port (Norfolk Virginia) rather than sailing it up to Boston. Says it will be cheaper to get it the rest of the way by truck versus paying the 25 grand.
Note: the cost (tariff) is paid by the importer, NOT CHINA.
Americans are generally too goddam ignorant to understand any of this.
Reminder if you didn’t know. Trump will be addressing Congress Tuesday night. This will be a defacto State of the Union at 9pm ET.
I suspect a complete poop show and 1 man scolding the entire congress. When you corner him and attack him, he has shown his joy for escalation. It will be entertaining to say the least. (reminder I am neutral)
The tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China are set to begin tomorrow.
I suspect they will go into affect (even temporarily) simply for the reason if they don’t, any future tariff threats won’t be taken seriously.
I also suspect for once, we may see a govt shutdown next week
There are multiple brush fires burning that can all escalate to a massive wild fire right now
One economist expressed the view that a 25% tariff on Canada would drive them into recession within 3 months. Trump just hates Trudeau.
More oil brought to market is good for cheap oil prices for every nation…..this is a big 180 for Mark Carney
“We as a nation need to build some new pipelines for conventional energy,” Carney said. He added his government would accelerate approvals for such pipelines and for clean energy.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-leadership-hopeful-mark-carney-says-he-d-run-a-deficit-to-invest-and-grow-canada-s-economy-1.7460774
He told the CBC this weekend that if he were prime minister his government would specifically accelerate approvals for pipelines, after years of the federal Liberal government cancelling or blocking several pipeline proposals.
https://nationalpost.com/news/carneys-campaign-admits-to-muddled-messaging
‘We will rearm and we will protect Ukraine.’
An impressive group of world leaders in meetings this weekend in London stood arm in arm with Zelensky and Ukraine. They will provide the money, manpower and weapons that Ukraine needs to stop Russia from seizing its country.
Despite Trump’s allegiance to Putin, Ukraine’s friends have stood up to Putin and will back Ukraine until this war is over. In comparison to European allies (including Canada), Russia does not “have the cards” to win.
Trump can pull the USA out of NATO. Any further talk from him regarding Ukraine is merely to distract his voters that (a) he can’t find 100,000 illegals to deport nevertheless 13 million, and (b) he can’t cut $500B out of the budget nevertheless $2T.
His speech before Congress on Tuesday will sound like a campaign speech echo. We’ve heard it all before. What we will now see however is an old man, much like Biden, well past his best-before date.
Grok 3 Review
Using 100 on a scale of satisfaction, I have found Grok 3 to be anywhere from +100 to -100. It can do a phenomenally helpful job or it will try to sell fantasy as fact. The latter applies no matter how defined and purposeful your prompt. The problem is not the user. It’s to do with the garbage library it builds from active users of X.
I understand its a great tool for systems and app programming. I am amazed at its “thinking” abilities, and I know that is a feature it will rapidly develop.
i know what I want and which AI platforms best meet my needs. I presently use about six almost daily. I can see some getting ahead and others falling behind the others in the features I need.
Hegseth orders Pentagon to stop offensive cyber operations against Russia, according to The New York Times.
A scary thought that only a few months ago, Hegseth couldn’t order a Fox trainee to fetch him a coffee.
Worth a look…diabetes from an A1c of 12 down to 6
The triple therapy: three free drugs that work better for diabetics | Dr. Ralph DeFronzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPsLGrBR2EE
Full interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQaLV3Fm00
Reaction by Dr. Peter Attia:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VuzDD1zZXNQ
They are back…
Wall Street is once again creating and selling securities backed by everything—the more creative the better—including corporate loans and consumer credit-card debt, lease payments on cars, airplanes and golf carts, and payments to data centers
New U.S. issuance of some of the most popular flavors of publicly traded structured credit hit record levels in 2024
New asset-backed securities totaled $335 billion 2024. Collateralized loan obligations rose to $201 billion
They Crashed the Economy in 2008. Now They’re Back and Bigger Than Ever. Wall Street expects to sell more than $335 billion in asset-backed debt this year. Remember that conference in ‘The Big Short’? It just drew a record 10,000
WSJ:
https://archive.is/axmE1#selection-2611.0-2611.362
“Not a litre will be delivered until Trump is finished”.
Spoken to Americans from the world.
Made my day especially after reading the garbage last night that Trump/Vance demanded an apology from Zelensky for the mugging they gave him on global television.
Americans must understand that the world is bigger than Trump. If Trump does more of what the world witnessed yesterday, what the Norwegians did will be replicated worldwide.
Mark my words. Trump disgraced America.