147 thoughts on “World Affairs”

  1. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:- Distant war drums
    Oh My……….its only been a few days but suddenly i see how “worried” the BBC has become about Yemen. It was once part of the Empire but the natives got all upperty & wanted to run the place for themselves.

    Now with the Houths taking all the coast line & being rather unhelpful about Saudi exports via the Red sea the British MSM has begone the time horrored job of setting the narrative for Blight & others to pop in & lend a helping hand.

    The BBC pitched in some footage of scared looking kids (Poster Child) & women. The fighting blokes had very little kit & looked like a bunch of locals that the BBC had driven to a disused building site & started firing round at vaguely in one direction.

    I heard no return fire………….

    The BBC has form on this, back in the Vietnam war they did a report from a “On going firefight”……in fact the battle had ended weeks early & a few burnt out vehicles were left. The BBC “Reporter” bravely poured gas into the vehicles & threw a few hand fulls of loose ammo.
    Then he set it burning……..crouging by one of them he reported that the battles was still going on while the fires burt & the ammo cooked off.

    My late Father was somewhat unimpressed by this, he worked on a bomb dump & knew the difference between real fire & cooking off.

    Anyways………..i can smell “Deployment” a coming…………..
    Cheers
    Mike

  3. Reply
    Finster says:

    While we’re challenging MSM narratives, another interesting disconnect is with economic reporting. We’ve noted before plunging consumer confidence, plumbing record lows despite supposedly rosy econometrics.

    Media have been hammering high fuel prices for months. I have family and friends across all socioeconomic strata, from wealthy to barely scraping by, yet I’ve not heard one complaint about fuel prices. Inflation in general, yes, but fuel prices specifically, no. Nor tariffs incidentally. It’s almost as if US media live in a different reality. Or have an agenda …

  5. Reply
    mega says:

    Very little rubber in modern tyres am told, you don’t burn rubber, you burn Polymers.
    The Germans has a synthetic rubber in WW2, they drove into Russia………then the winter came 😉

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Some natural rubber is used in almost all vehicle tires, about 30% on average. But the point was just a jovial poke at the suggestion that making tires from trees is new or different … that it’s “reinventing the wheel”, so to speak … 😉 …

      1. Reply
        mega says:

        Rubber comes from latex eg the rubber plantations in far east….the rest is petro chems.
        My late Father told me that his firm (Dunlop) had shown a “Plastic tyre”. When asked how it would work they said “No idea, but it allows us to have a patent on it.

        Mike

        1. Reply
          Finster says:

          Possibly they’re making tires without petroleum products … eg only from trees … that might be noteworthy …

  7. Reply
    mega says:

    Just before the fall of the CCCP they put a Satellite up to try the same thing………..but it failed

  8. Reply
    Finster says:

    The New Luddite Revolution

    “Meta released their personal AI agent, Muse, last month, promising that it is safe, secure, and private. They say it “actually does the work” rather than just acting as a chatbot …

    Supposedly, you decide how much access it gets to your systems and personal information. It all sounds wonderful, although I had to laugh at “reflecting on what matters to them.” One can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a perfect example of a Freudian slip: who exactly is “them”? Whatever the meaning, the chances of me using Muse are exactly zero.

    Can Meta be trusted? Mark Zuckerberg’s track record ought to matter, and it isn’t good …”

  9. Reply
    Finster says:

    France is frightening the life out of the bond markets

    “France’s debt mountain stands at 119 per cent of its GDP. The UK’s is much lower at 95.1. It is not in an ideal situation. The UK might have less debt, but its interest rate payments are higher. It has many more inflation linked bonds, Bank of England base rates are higher than in the Eurozone and it has been suffering from the effects of the bond markets’ distemper, too.

    But that distemper is an increasingly global phenomenon. As I write yields (interest rates) on French, Spanish, and also American bonds, are on the rise as the markets search for their next victim.”

    1. Reply
      mega says:

      “Victim”?
      Criminal enterprise you mean?
      The “Invisible hand” is about to bitch slap them!

  10. Reply
    mega says:

    🇬🇧🇸🇦 Britain joins the US in providing aid to Saudi Arabia.

    A British tanker aircraft is flying toward Yemen to back the Saudi air force in its campaign, while Saudi jets have shifted their launches from Jeddah to Prince Sultan Air Base, which is operated by US forces.

  13. Reply
    Finster says:

    Jaguar 01

    Jaguar needs to rediscover a bit of the old school style that made it great. You know, when you could look at one and instantly know it was a Jaguar?

    Jaguar

  14. Reply
    mega says:

    ………………….& to think Enzo Ferrari called the E Type the most beautiful car he ever seen.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Jaguar E-Type

      Besides its distinctive style, the other thing Jaguar always had going for it was an awesome combination of ride and handling. Hard to tell from looks alone, but the Type 01 doesn’t look designed for real world roads. It looks more like an Elon Musk nightmare.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      The gold backed treasury bond is an interesting idea and one investors should be aware of, but it has some big negatives.

      For one thing, it’s said to have the potential to reduce the government’s borrowing costs. That’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We’ve just been through an era of low borrowing costs and it encouraged the government to borrow more. By providing a mechanism to ease the government’s debt burden, it lightens the pressure to address at the source and become more fiscally responsible. It’s a fiscal irresponsibility enabler.

      Worse yet, while it creates the appearance of lower borrowing costs, it sends them higher. When years after the borrowing occurs the bond holders decide to demand gold, the government’s costs will soar. The binary optionality is a bug dressed up as a feature … the bond is payable in dollars or gold. This bit of complexity makes it messy … inviting interpretation according to one’s agenda. It’s a can kicking scheme at its core.

      Finally, it’s something Treasury could actually default on. One of the attractions of treasuries has always been that you were certain to get the dollars promised, even if the value of those dollars were uncertain. Repayment in depreciated currency is the standard mode of sovereign default and well understood. The government can’t print gold. These bonds would require pricing in the kind of overt default risk that heretofore has been reserved for credit.

      The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

  16. Reply
    mega says:

    The Clown show that is Porsche are at it again……………Seems someone told them that the lower classes will not be able to “Lease Hire” their good anymore, thus they are raising their prices sharply high.

    The net Gen Boxster/Cayman will ONLY be an EV, & don’t expect much change from £100K. The turd has been floating about in “Camo” & “Under development”for years!. by the time its out it will be due a facelift.

    All the batteries are in one solid block behind the driver (After Porsche told everyone it should be split in two, one front, one back). It also grown somewhat in weight to over 1750 kgs (up from 1380 ish). Meantime Alpine are about to roll out the A110……….a car weighting at 1400 kgs ish (3rd of a ton lighter) Split battery packs & may be in wheel motors!

    In other words a cutting edge car v a fat slug…………oh and Alpine are deep into talks with CATL about more advanced battery type.

    Mike

  18. Reply
    Finster says:

    Nice little bounce in bonds today. I’ve been expecting a rally … but far too soon to say whether this is the beginning of it … or just a dead cat blip.

  20. Reply
    Finster says:

    America shut out Chinese EVs. Britain welcomed them — and now faces a difficult choice

    “Chinese EVs face only a 10% standard import duty in Britain, one of the largest major overseas markets without additional China-specific tariffs. Japan and Norway also lack them.

    It’s in contrast to the U.S., where a 100% tariff effectively shut Chinese EVs out…”

    In case anyone was wondering why electric cars are so expensive in America.

    “… The European Union, the U.K.’s biggest trading partner, has manufacturer-specific duties on Chinese EVs of up to 35.3%, in addition to a standard 10% import duty on all foreign cars.

    Now, the U.K. faces a difficult choice, as EU proposals may force it to impose tariffs to match the bloc’s.”

    Tariffs are only bad when Trump does them.

  28. Reply
    Finster says:

    From my perspective the only thing wrong with the diesel deal is it doesn’t go far enough. America should work to drop all sanctions against Russia post haste. I’ve been saying since the beginning that it should be pursuing better relations with Russia. The media have never justified their repeated claims that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked”. It takes more than just slipping an adjective into a sentence to make a case.

    The fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War was supposed to be the end of (a bad) history and The West has squandered a historic opportunity by refusing to accept it. The Ukraine War has cost countless human lives and inflicted massive economic damage. Relations with Russia have far reaching implications, notably including North Korea and Iran. It would be much harder for trouble spots around the world to be trouble if America and Russia were on the same page. Trump promised that he would end the Ukraine War on Day One and the Great Dealmaker is behind schedule.

  29. Reply
    mega says:

    Ah…………..The art of the deal
    The British are now spitting tacks BIG time, they just don’t matter now……….which is one reason they so upset. Jokes apart i was watching Art Beman on Youtube & he makes some good points.

    We not going back to the way things were.
    Green power/ Ev’s etc are “As well as” not a replacement for old fuels.

    I also see thing not going well for MBS down there in Saudi. If Saudi fall, they all fall!

    Poland hosted the AFD from Germany & Le Pen’s team………….big talk was getting the Norstream pipelines back.

    Never Mind Paris Motor show opens Monday i think…………..
    Mike

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      We’re gonna have some mix of energy sources for the foreseeable future. The best thing government can do is prevent cost externalization (eg tax pollution) and otherwise get out of the way and let producers and consumers interacting in a free market work out what works best where and when. One-size-fits-all never does.

  30. Reply
    mega says:

    Trump just got called “Weak” by the Green goblin…….& attacked Russian Hydrocarbons against Trump’s wishers…………Trump wants him gone…….NOW!

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      He could at least end US military support
      … like he could have on Day One.

      Trump administration obligates $307M for military aid to Ukraine

      “The Trump administration has made legally binding commitments to spend almost all of the $400 million Congress approved for military aid to Ukraine late last year, ensuring that the money will not expire on Sept. 30 …”

      Earth-Shakers

      “Let’s think about the Ukraine vs. Russia war quickly. When Ukraine loses, the world will change…

      … But the Ukraine war truly began in 2014, when Obama’s intelligence services executed the Maidan Revolution (coup). NATO is deep in this war.”

  31. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s Dispatch from England:- The British are nice……….. until they NOT!
    Are yes as Kipling once observed is now getting played out once again.

    My 1st real taste of post empire geopolitical wrath was when the sudden withdraw of US forces from Afghanistan. I was in government at the time & the FURY had to be witnessed to be believed. This latest blow to British soft power is not quite on that level but its not far off.

    With Ukraine going from bad to worse & the Middle east now on fire, time is short. I am not sure when the full blown energy crisis will hit but it can’t be long. The British built a large Natural gas plant in Qatar to ship to Blighty, its now a charged ruin.

    Even it wasn’t who in Gods name is going to sail a fully loaded LPG tanker in that part of the World?………….who insure it?

    Diesel might be getting the headlines but i think LPG is going to be the story by Xmas.

    We also hearing that an general election will be called in the new year, possibly for Feb. They hope bad weather will keep the right from voting. I suspect the deadbeat welfare class are the ones that will not bother. Oh Yes………….i almost forgot…….Labour are rushing to change the law that voter I.D will be required when voting………..gee i wonder why?

    Mike

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      My dad drove Citroens and Saabs when we were kids.
      That’s not my father’s Citroen;-)

  34. Reply
    Finster says:

    Un-Brexit?

    Vade Retro, Satana-EU!

    “British prime minister Andy Burnham has announced his intention to negotiate Britain’s return into the European Union. With today’s EU, this is an economically suicidal idea…”

    Say it ain’t so!

    But please read Hutchinson’s analysis … he eloquently weaves together the history and economics.

  38. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:- Opening old wounds
    Greetings all…………..so here we are.
    British PM Andy B made an MEGA mistake this week. He told the world that people only voted for brexit because Russian “interference” . When challenged to give examples or evidence of this he was unwilling/unable to.

    He then sent out one of his female attack-females called Emily Thornberry, a leftist who mouth is bigger than her I.Q. Think of her as a sort of British Bella Abzug without the hat & on relentless PMT. She expressed the view that the PM should just “rejoin” without any discussion.

    Naturally this caused something of a sh1t storm………..which is what Labour intended. It serves two purposes, 1st it acts as a distraction from PM’s business dealings with money from UAE/Middle east. …………2nd, Labour are facing getting slaughtered in the next election. What they hope to do is turn the election as “Brexit vote 2.0”. By doing so they hope to get out the “Remain” vote & thus get out at lest some support for themselves.

    Cheers
    Mike

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Thanks Mike!

      Martin Hutchinson has an excellent piece on the history and economics of this … see here.

  40. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:- Turning up to 11
    Well, well the British are fully panic……….They had the Green Goblin flown into Blighty. You know when things are bad when Perres Morgan is brought in to feed the little sh1t tame questions.

    One that raised my eye brows was when Morgan asked him if he feels betrayed? Another was how he felt when he heard Trump using “Russian talking points”? The BBC is going full chat on this one…………number 1 on the news.

    With the news just in more than half the men in blighty would REFUSE to fight for the powers to be, it would be fair to say the midnight oil is burring in Whitehall. I also note that those Sweden lads are now getting told they could be deployed to do their national service OUTSIDE Sweden!

    The Burning question for me is this. Given that the Middle east is on fire + Russia…….where the F**K is the Diesel etc coming from????
    Cheers
    Mike

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      It already has! This happened, and it’s the most impressive automotive feat ever. Singular. If you haven’t already, check out the second, longer (~20m) video on the engineering inside.

        1. Reply
          Finster says:

          The car as a whole.

          0-60 0.55s. Leaps over a tractor trailer, twirling like an Olympic athlete, and sticks a perfect landing.

          In a class by itself.

            1. Reply
              Finster says:

              That’s a different subject again. I’m talking about the car in the videos. The whole car, not parts of it; the actual car, not a hypothetical commercial product.

              The whole car, the actual car, nothing but the car.

              Check out the reaction of the reviewer after seeing the demo. This is a professional automotive journalist, visibly shaken. I’m an engineer by training, spent an entire career reviewing cutting edge technology, and am not easily impressed. I have no biases about Elon Musk. There’s no credible way to minimize this achievement.

              It’s flat out incredible.

  44. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England: The lies that tell the truth.
    The BBC is now going FULL Throttle on the lies output, latest being that Ukraine is “Winning” & they just retaken 100 square miles of land. Even they way they say it (Without any proof) is so unconvincing, it must have been like this in Berlin in 1945.

    The sad face female news anchor who looked like an old trout with a pantomime face painted spat out the “Facts”. Their lies told more truth than you could imagine. This war is coming to an end. The West is out of hydrocarbons, out of money & out of time.

    This is now the most dangerous time now, you can bet at lest one of them is going to try a “Hail mary” pass. Lets see wot comes.
    Good luck everyone
    Mike

  45. Reply
    mega says:

    OK, update:-
    British troops on route to Poland for a “Exercise” right on the border of Ukraine.
    Its about to get HOT.
    Mike

  49. Reply
    mega says:

    When it can sail across the Channel & is met by Lifeboats operating as a “Taxi service”, that might be hard to do.
    Mike

  50. Reply
    mega says:

    Micron has spoken………….weak, directionless chat about how “We feel” seeing the riots going on………
    Mike

  51. Reply
    Finster says:

    Oil futures likely to react to Ukraine’s attack on Russian oil, lifting of diesel sanctions

    ““It’s really big support for Putin. He feels victory with sanctions and diesel deal and let down Starlink between us,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Elon Musk’s satellite internet network. “It’s more support for Russian aggression, especially for their strikes against our civilians, against our energy projects.””

    You kinda threw away the “Russian aggression” card when you went on the offensive.

  52. Reply
    Finster says:

    The wealthy boomer problem is metastasizing—they got 38% richer over the last 3 years as Gen Z and millennials under 35 got wiped out

    Shame on you Fortune.

    Just another example of the media penchant for chopping up hundreds of millions of individuals into groups and setting them against each other. It only starts with divisive labels like “Boomer”, “Millennial”, etc.

    The article also fails to acknowledge the simple fact that old people need much more assets than younger people do. Youngsters are able to work. The whole concept of retirement is based on accumulating assets as you age so that you have a means of support when you’re no longer wanted by employers. This article makes it sound like there’s some hidden conspiracy to enrich one generation at the expense of another. And mention of the Federal Reserve’s role in pumping up asset values accumulated as one ages is conspicuous by its absence.

    What’s more, it diverts attention from the far bigger heist … the one enriching corporations at the expense of individuals. Not only have years of federal interest rate manipulation tilted the financial markets playing field in favor of corporations and subsidized their capital, and the historical regulations preventing insider self helping via stock option compensation and share buybacks, but even the tax code now has tilted the financial playing field away from individuals towards corporations, with income tax rates for trillion dollar corporations now lower than those of many individuals.

    And Fortune wants us to think the inequity lies in between younger and older folks.

  55. Reply
    mega says:

    WSJ: Putin/Trump to meet in China to “Resolve” Ukraine war……………..
    I not hold my breath.
    Mike

      1. Reply
        Finster says:

        Setting aside for a moment the likelihood, it’s hard to imagine a geopolitical problem that couldn’t be solved with America, Russia and China all on the same page.

  56. Reply
    Finster says:

    Merz Warns Europe Is Underestimating Russian Threat

    ““German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned against complacency over the dangers posed by Russia, saying that President Vladimir Putin is seeking to not only defeat Ukraine, but to also undermine democracy in Europe,” Bloomberg reports.”

    Pot. Kettle. Black.

    Wonder what he expects usurping national sovereignty, inviting mass third world immigration, and consolidating power in a giant centralized administrative state to do.

  57. Reply
    Finster says:

    A New Chapter with Russia

    The world is a’changin’

    NATO Enlargement

    Daily Reckoning’s Adam Sharp nails it:

    “In 1999, the great Pat Buchanan wrote:

    “By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first century confrontation. … America will face a hellish dilemma: risk confrontation with a nuclear-armed Russia determined to recreate its old sphere of influence, or renege on solemn commitments and see NATO collapse.

    Offering NATO memberships to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and, as some urge, Ukraine is rashness bordering on madness.”

    Buchanan’s prediction came true, of course. The man has an uncanny track record.”

    …

    “The article hints that modern Russia is the new Europe. And that modern Europe is the new USSR:

    Europe is now tyrannized by the unelected EU commission, much as the old Soviet Union was tyrannized by its politburo. An Orwellian switcheroo has occurred.”

    …

    “Is this the beginning of a new chapter with Russia? I hope so. Throughout history, Russia has proven to be a good ally and a bad enemy.

    The country wants a productive relationship with the U.S. And in those rare instances in history where we worked together, amazing things have been accomplished.”

  58. Reply
    mega says:

    “The article hints that modern Russia is the new Europe. And that modern Europe is the new USSR:”

    Yes, many see this, mostly those who lived post WW2 in the Warsaw pack!
    Mike

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      It would behoove Europe to try to get along better with Russia too. Its rush to defend Ukraine is justified largely on an insensate assumption that Ukraine is just the beginning of a Russian campaign to roll through Europe. Emphasize the word assumption.

      So we’re having a real war to prevent a hypothetical one? Why is the option of, if Russia were to invade a longstanding NATO member like Poland or Germany, then defend it to the hilt, rejected in favor of going to the mat over a country that is not in NATO?

      The only plausible answer is that NATO isn’t on the defense but on the offense.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      The war, which erupted not at a plantation but a duty collection station, was made about slavery only well after it started, in part to keep Europe from coming to the aid of the South.

  63. Reply
    mega says:

    Oil yes…………may be…………..but diesel/jet fuel/LPG?
    BTW Gold getting KILLED!

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Aye, distillates are now the bottleneck. Mostly from another theater. I wonder if Mr Deal Maker is thinking about some kind of Ukraine for Iran trade.

  65. Reply
    Finster says:

    Gold is getting crushed. Stocks are down sharply today, and gold is providing less than no ballast, down even more than stocks. Where is there ballast? Some from where it’s come from most of this year – broad commodities, energy, ag, etc. And one notable new face on the upside … bonds, treasury bonds.

    The bond market rally I anticipated a few weeks ago is in full swing. The early birds got the worm though … the easy money has been made.

  66. Reply
    Finster says:

    Silver is starting to look a little overdone on the downside. It’s now been bombed all the way back to November of last year, when traders couldn’t get enough at these prices. Platinum too. I bought just a bit of both this afternoon, and stand ready to do more if they get cheaper. I’m not ready to call a bottom yet, but I think the lion’s share of the bear market is behind us.

  69. Reply
    Finster says:

    With Election Day less than two weeks away on November 3, media have pronounced the Republican Party DOA. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

    There are several reasons. One is that media predictions, like polls, are a form of manipulation. Self fulfilling prophecy works to a degree as people as a whole want to go with the crowd. Media are overwhelmingly Democrat and the pattern of events overwhelmingly a Rorschach test.
    The media mostly get it wrong, having predicted Clinton would win in 2016 and Harris in 2024.

    Media hate Donald Trump even more than his party. They want the mid terms to be a referendum on his performance. But most voters aren’t that stupid. They know that unpopular policies like the Iran
    war aren’t due to their representatives in Congress, and that Reps don’t vote as a partisan block to the extent that Dems do. They also know that the lesser of the evils is better then the greater.

    That said, Republicans will suffer losses and Democrats gains. Historically the president’s party loses seats in the mid terms. It just won’t be as big as the media portray. It will be enough though to ensure that the next two years’ US politics news flow will be dominated by investigations and impeachments.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Don’t let the MSM snow you. Gold has indeed broken under $4000, prompting yours truly to take another nibble. I think we’re nearing the crossover point between broad commodities and gold and silver. We leaned into the former nearly a year ago and as markets approach the opposite configuration are now starting to lean back the other way.

  71. Reply
    Finster says:

    New Trump Peace Plan Outline For Ukraine Emerges

    Hardly a watershed.

    Nor a serious peace plan. Russia is unlikely to sign on to Ukraine membership in the EU, nor is it enough to placate NATO expansionists. Not to mention atypically milquetoast for Donald Trump.

    The war started with the US-NATO sponsored coup in 2014, and won’t truly be over until that’s undone. Let Russia have Ukraine in its orbit. It matters little to the average Ukrainian whether he’s ruled by autocrats in Kiev or autocrats in Moscow (or worse Brussels) … make no mistake, this is about western imperialism, and better relations with Russia would be more than worth the price.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Aye. We’ve learned by now that it’s not news if it hasn’t happened. Statements and intentions are cheap. Still, one could hope that at least the aspirational could do better than this.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      The odds don’t look good. Tens of thousands of officers, hundreds of thousands of protesters. Assume 99.99% of encounters are casualty-free.

      Casualties are almost certain.

      Let your imagination fill in the sequelae.

  74. Reply
    mega says:

    It is of course a staged event.

    They kept the kids out of school, mis organised the Police, Hard left (paid) together with an appearance of “Greta” with her “He-man” hair cut.

    So, wot are they up too?
    Mike

  76. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s Dispatch from England:- Wealth sucks
    Well its blowing a gale here in Liverpool. The 1st of the winter storms are upon us. The MSM is trying to spin it as “Usual” ….which it is not.

    The UK Budget is almost here & bugger all the Chancher can do. He was a totally flamed out economy & there is simply nothing left to tax. Talk round the campfire is that he introduce a new tax on imported fuel. The MSM sez petrol but i suspect dear old Diesel as well.

    Talking of Diesel, i was at the Gas station today. I filled up (£70) a Ford Fiesta 1 litre cylinder Turbo. At lest i don’t do the run to Manchester every day now, that fill up will last 2-3 months.
    Along side me was a chap with a 5 year old Range Rover SUV……….he looked “Unhappy” & his wife looked VERY pissed off.

    I suspect he bought it over the objections of his smarter wife. Indeed the chickens are starting to come home to roost. He can look forward to massive costs for tyres & brakes but Diesel will be the killer. This little brew ah ah in the Middle east is unlikely to blow over for years & yest Tanker traffic can climb, but refinally output can not.

    Russian Diesel is mostly off the market, most plants in Saudi etc are smashed & will not be working again for years……….the World has changed.

    It was at this point i suddenly saw my calling, “Mega Counselling”. My job will be to offer services to those whom are now about to suffer an fall from automotive grace. In short, welcome to the jungle. Yes you spent the last 10-20 years being an ash0le to you fellow road users.

    Banging you foot down any time anyone wants to overtake, laying smoke on Tesla owners on the freeway. Yes there are some good times for the rest of us like when you “discover” the difference between a Pilot sport s tyre & something from China made from Yak hide……eg making the corner or not making it 😉

    However the “Happy times” are over you you now bastard. Let Mega introduce you to your new “ride”, you new station in life.
    https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/first-look-suzuki-e-sky-sub-%C2%A320k-ev-due-uk-next-year

    Mike

  79. Reply
    mega says:

    Shocking train crash in Spain, my heartfelt wishes to all those involved, may your God walk with you.
    Mike

  80. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:-Black hole budget
    A non event mass in time/space is the best way to describe blighty’s budget. The ruling Labour party are simply applying the time honoured trick of “Kicking the can down the street”.
    More taxes, more borrowing & NO/ZERO Welfare cuts.

    When questioned when the hell he intends to balance the books/cut welfare the Prime minster simply said “We working flatout at a plan”. Knowing he has bugger all chance of his party agreeing to ANY reforms whatsoever i guess that’s all he can say.

    The big question is this, to call a general election?
    He love to, he lose & then the next government can take the heat & Labour could return when the dirty work was over. However his MP’s are not so keen.

    These fat lazy morons are people who in normal times would never have been voted into power. At the last election the people were so pissed with the flood of immigration they voted in this shower as a protest vote.

    Hence they know they going to be dumped if the Prime Minister calls a GE.
    Oh hum
    Mike

  83. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:- The DROP

    Well friends,ithink we are there.

    Deflation followed by inflation (EJ’s crack up boom), it does not matter. Yesterday will become known as “AI Friday”, the start of the bubble pop.

    More & more news is coming of larger & larger job losses, caused by slowing business & rising rates. Factor in bad debt & people unable or unwilling to pay their bills & i see a panic beginning.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/10/31/virgin-media-o2-to-axe-4000-jobs/

    Then there is our beloved government. Its started to allow local government to “Invest” in local projects. To say this policy has been tried before is a joke, its always ended in disaster were the local tax payers are forced to pay the bill.

    WE just had news that Doncaster airport IS to be brought back into operation. It was a former RAF bomber base with a 2 miles long runway. Then 20 years ago PRIVATE money decided to turn it into a civil airport.

    Seemed like a good idea i mean all the utilities required were already laid on. Power/Gas/Pipeline fuel & the rest. Sadly for its life it lost money, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, it closed 2 years ago.

    Well it seems that the local Labour council has decided to give it a go. From what i can tell they operating a “bait & switch” job here. Its been bought but i don’t think a single plane will ever fly from it. I suspect it will end up as housing & housing a VERY large number of “New arrivals”

    Sheffield council has form on this. Some years ago they decided to “Host” the Commonwealth games. For those whom don’t know the Commonwealth was an attempt to hang onto nations we raped & pillaged. Having taken them by force we gave them their “Independence” (we got the boot).

    The late Queen & her crew were keen to still try to use them for political power, only recently the British scum BLEW when India had the affront to buy oil from Russia. Anyway they have the Games as a sort of imperial version of the Olympics.

    Sheffield got the chance to host it & rather than use existing facilities they went GRAND & built a lot of NEW stuff. The games were a bit of a dud & the Local tax payers where left with a very large bill, it will take 40 YEARS to pay off if at all.

    Labour LOVE spending (other peoples) cash.
    Mike

  84. Reply
    sunpearl71 says:

    “Then there is our beloved government. Its started to allow local government to “Invest” in local projects. To say this policy has been tried before is a joke, its always ended in disaster were the local tax payers are forced to pay the bill.”

    – Absolutely! The last time they tried to do this locally where I live, the funding went to a bunch of projects that could have been funded by private sector businesses and investors.

  85. Reply
    mega says:

    Ok, so riots in Germany & Switzerland!
    Trump looking like a bloodbath come Tuesday…..wondering wot is going to happen when the markets open?
    Interesting week ahead!

  90. Reply
    Finster says:

    The Bear’s Lair: The Shrinking Investible World

    “The problem since 2022 has been the Western embargo, which has violated property rights far more egregiously than anything Putin has done …”

    “MSCI’s failure to restore Argentina to its 2018-21 “emerging market” status since Javier Milei took over in 2023 is an increasingly anomalous disgrace …”

    “The most important investibility question globally is the EU, and to a lesser extent Britain …”

  93. Reply
    mega says:

    Mega’s dispatch from England:- Trump plays his “Trump” card.
    ………..his female.
    Normally the 1st Lady plays little part on the World stage. We would get from time to time something like like Nancy Reagan (Just say no) to the dreadful Tipper Gore applying sticky labels to record al-bans.

    However i noticed Trump’s “Female” is making out like she wants the Noble peace prize! 1st she brokered the ceasefire to evacuate a small city on the front line in Ukraine, now she hosting Ukraine/Russian peace talks.

    Something is happening………
    I just like to remind you all that we had an attempted coup in Poland last week & British/French troops are amaasing on the border with Ukraine………….just saying.
    Mike

  95. Reply
    mega says:

    Reports circling that a “Torture centre” in Kiev has been discovered. The Local population has sprung as many as 50 people. ……..can’t wait for the BBC to report this.
    Mike

  97. Reply
    Finster says:

    We’re seeing no big surprises in the US midterm elections so far. The opposition party almost always picks up seats, and this year is no exception. As of this hour, the House will almost certainly fall under majority Democrat control, while the Senate, only a third of which is up for election every two years, is a closer call.

    Republican losses are likely greater due to some tone-deaf moves, beginning with the reinstatement of the Obamacare tax credit cliff. As I wrote nearly a year ago, it was politically suicidal and would be remembered by voters. The party’s support of crypto, online gambling and AI data centers hasn’t helped either, nor its handing the biggest tax cuts to the biggest corporations. The administration’s failure to bring the Ukraine war to an end and starting a new one with Iran that still continues, as well as its bellicose approach to international relations, are also reflected in the party’s election performance.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      It bears emphasizing that this is not a win for Dems as much as it is a loss for Reps. The public did not fall in love with the former’s agenda, it rebuked the latter’s performance. Mostly their leader in the White House, who has been doing too much talking and too little listening.

      As a result, the political outlook isn’t good. Expect the next two years headlines to be dominated by investigations and impeachments. Longer term, Mr Trump has been his own worst enemy, risking that what he has accomplished on border security becomes just a temporary speed bump by handing power to the opposition.

      5 midterm election takeaways

    2. Reply
      Finster says:

      Turning to the apparent market reaction (“apparent” because correlation doesn’t equal causation), stocks initially sold off overnight before rallying hard today. At this hour VT is up by 1.63%. But gold is up by 3.52%. These figures being in dollar terms indicates that the common denominator is the dollar, having fallen, which is supported by its decline in forex. The upshot is that stock declines and gains are not as inconsistent as they may seem … while stocks may be up 1.63% in dollars, they’re down 1.83% in real money. For more on the relationship between asset prices and currency values, see The Claw Machine.

  98. Reply
    Finster says:

    GM moves stock listing to Nasdaq – commentary

    “You can change the exchange where your shares trade, surround yourself with computer programmers, and talk about software until the batteries in your microphone die, but first and foremost, General Motors is an automaker.
    … …
    I spend enough time reviewing new vehicles to appreciate what good technology can do. But General Motors, the technology should serve the vehicle and its owner. When management becomes more excited about what else it can sell the customer than about the automobile it already sold them, I start getting nervous. Read the last line again and let it sink in.”

  100. Reply
    Finster says:

    Market have been anything but boring lately. Oil has cratered since October 23. Gold has soared since October 30. The Nasdaq has been crumbling since October 6, down over 4% today alone.

    1. Reply
      Finster says:

      Stocks as an asset class, in dollar terms, topped out on August 13, and have been working their way down since. This is a quintessential bear market. We define a bear market in the traditional sense as any meaningful decline extended over time. Financial media lite have attempted to redefine it in purely magnitude terms (a 20% decline), but that merely serves to delay a declaration of a bear market until large losses have already been incurred. Wouldn’t you rather not wait until you’ve lost 20% for a bear market alert?

      Media are also attempting to chalk up today’s crash to the mid term vote, alleging that Democrats will be less friendly to building AI data centers. This is typically amnesiac media obsession with tying all major market moves with the latest headlines. Not that there isn’t an element of truth to it, but it’s hard to turn that into a retroactive explanation for all the declines that came before. In fact the bigger problem is more fundamental; Big Tech moved from financing its investments with business cash flow to financing them with huge amounts of debt and the stocks were overvalued to begin with. Shifting all the blame to politics conveniently exculpates Big Tech from its own folly and media for its pumping stocks regardless of valuation. The core explanation for most plunges in stock prices is that they were too high to begin with. Bubbles burst.

      Gold and Treasuries meanwhile are doing their job of providing ballast today, both up smartly.

      1. Reply
        sunpearl71 says:

        Part of the allure of investing in Big Tech and Tech in general is the ease with which software can scale. Once the software is developed and/or a platform is deployed, the marginal cost of serving a new customer was comparatively very low, in relation to physical products. With AI and the need for data centres, this business logic is no longer holding.
        Added to this is the channeling of all their free cash flow and additional debt into data centre investments creates a drag on future earnings that is not being fully accounted for, yet. As you say, financial media takes the path of least resistance when reporting market developments by reaching for an explanation linked to the latest new cycle.

  102. Reply
    mega says:

    Tesla kills Cybertruck…………..S & X already dead………..leaving only 2 (one effectively) aging model(s).
    Mike

  104. Reply
    Finster says:

    As they often do, markets are reversing a bit of yesterday’s outsized moves. It’s entirely possible that the prevailing direction for stocks the next few weeks is up.

    Seasonality is mildly favorable. Prior to the selloff, financial media were busy plugging the notion that the six months after the midterms are historically the strongest period of the four year cycle. The day after rally may have reflected efforts to take advantage. What most media didn’t mention though is that this strong period was typically a rebound following deep declines. Pre-election declines this cycle were however very mild, indicating there just wasn’t much to rebound from.

    It might be a stretch to say this was a deliberate effort by Wall Street to fleece its despised “retail” investors, but that’s just about how it would have worked out if it had been.

  105. Reply
    mega says:

    More attacks on Data centers …………..an organized front against them is now forming…

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