US President Donald Trump says the US will go ahead on its threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, saying the US does not need their products. Trump also said the US may target Canadian oil imnports.”
Should be interesting, given that domestic US oil consumption is 60% Canadian.
Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 31 2025 13:10 utc | 99
He is a complete nutjob. Looking at the world via a gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens. His whole team does.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 31 2025 14:12 utc | 104

In summary.
Tariff man is a nutjob.
Remember the tariffs he put on Soyabeans from China during his first term ?
They couldn’t get them from anywhere else. Argentina and other places couldn’t fill the shortfall. They ended up paying more for them. He had to subsidise American farmers to the tune of $70 billion to deal with the blowback.
Only ideologues that view the world via a gold standard fixed rate exchange rate lens will fall for his grift.
Unfortunately, must of them do as they don’t understand modern money.
Here:
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=2562
Read and learn. Stops you from juggling fruit and comparing Apple’s and oranges.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 31 2025 14:29 utc | 106

Russian exports fund Putin’s war.
Strong currency good, weak currency bad.
Running a trade deficit is living beyond your means.
You will run out of foreign exchange reserves to defend your currency.
Japan will drown under its sea of debt and debt should not be more than 80% of GDP.
The deficit is too big we must impose austerity.
Low bond yields saves the government money.
The bond markets will destroy the country.
This vicious spiral of rising deficits and debt would be likely to push interest rates even higher.
New debt to pay off old debt. In other words, its debt is snowballing. Actually, however, prices of government bonds, or the government’s IOUs, will tumble before a fiscal collapse or the government’s default on its debt.
Are all analysis via a gold standard , fixed exchange rate lens. I could list another 100. Pick any economics news headlines you like from the Western media and it is gold stsndard, fixed exchange rate analysis That no longer applies.
That doesn’t represent the facts regarding modern money. Japan and other countries with fully sovereign, free floating fiat currencies have debunked every one of them in the real world.
Why of course the sanctions against Russia m very worked as the sanctions were designed to work a century ago. Under a gold , standard fixed exchange rate regime.
It is the reason the World is in the mess it is in. Ideologues have been completely captured throughout the educational institutions and the media by gold standard, fixed exchange rate GROUPTHINK.
Why tariffs are back on the agenda. They are nutjobs the lot of them.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 31 2025 14:55 utc | 108

“US President Donald Trump says the US will go ahead on its threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, saying the US does not need their products. Trump also said the US may target Canadian oil imnports.”
Should be interesting, given that domestic US oil consumption is 60% Canadian.
Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 31 2025 13:10 utc | 99
This would crash their economies in not a small way.
Trade volumes between countries are, in a simplified way, their relative world GDP quota multiplied between each pair and divided by a measure of distance.
Both canada and mexico depend on the the us for more than half their exports that are themselves half the GDP.
So maybe 25% of GDP for them would be up for impact, it depends a lot on price elasticity, and ability to reduce profits or make final customers pay more. But let’s say slightly less than half , a 10% GDP drop would be massive.
Now for imports, assuming tit for tat counter measures, alternatives would be found, let’s say a 10%+ inflation impact and a likely trade deficit.
Top of mind That’s what trump is threatening. On the other hand if he does it for many more major trade partners, what goes around comes around and the us would suffer something like half of that (their international trade amounts to a much smaller portion of GDP), but would suffer in a lot of investments that combined with a global crisis might make for a huge crisis in the us financial sector.
Caveat, these are napkin based calculations on top of mind ratios and values, unlike proper excelomancy, but should hold for general conclusions

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 31 2025 15:04 utc | 110

It would be a brilliant book to write.
Mainstream Macro detached from reality with their gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens.
I can promise you this . Ask Joe bloggs on the street what is wrong with their economy.
They will repeat ad nausem using gold standard, fixed exchange rate soundbites, cliches, analogies, memes that they have learned by rote from their TV’s, radios, newspapers and social media explaining what they think is wrong.
Why they ALWAYS 100% vote against their own best interests. Never get the communities they deserve.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 31 2025 15:08 utc | 112

The terrorist outfit M23 are backed by Uganda and Rwanda – who answer to Washington – the DRC, has such an abundance of sought after minerals – the Belgians enslaved and slaughtered them centuries ago – and very little has changed since then – the actor countries, might have changed – and big business now steals the assets – but most of the people still live in abject poverty.
“Russia has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a resumption of peace negotiations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
Zakharova noted that the situation in the east of the DRC has significantly deteriorated in recent weeks, with intensified militant activity from the M23.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 31 2025 15:20 utc | 114

I hope these countries put similar tariffs on the USA.
“The US will impose tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico as soon as February 1, US President Donald Trump has said. He stressed that the issue of taxing oil imports from the neighboring states has yet to be decided.
Trump had previously vowed to introduce sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China immediately after taking office. The president has cited illegal immigration, drug traffic and a mounting trade deficit as key reasons for the move.
Speaking with journalists in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump confirmed his intentions, setting a Saturday deadline for tariffs on imports from America’s two closest neighbors, and highlighting that the tariff level “may or may not rise with time.”
“I’ll be putting the tariff of 25% on Canada and separately 25% on Mexico,” he said, adding that the US has sizable trade deficits with the countries.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 31 2025 15:23 utc | 116

In answer to: “Russian exports fund Putin’s war…”
Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Jan 31 2025 14:55 utc | 108
This morning, on the last day of January, I’m taking my sparkly star off my front gate, and I’m celebrating a different star: Molly Ivins, who wrote in her introduction to “Bushwhacked”, published in 2005, the following:

“… There was time when explaining how what the government does affects “ordinary people was considered political reporting. But reporters somehow became more fixated on the polls, the consultants [remember the consultants?],the horse race, and the partisan bickering: ordinary people pretty much fell off the screen. We’re still here.[!!] The difference between one underassistant secretary and another assistant undersecretary is still turning people’s lives upside down; indeed, it can be the difference between life and death.

(my bolds and [] )
President Trump gets it. You, nutjob SoA, DO NOT. It was not exports that resurrected Russia — It was the people!
Happy Molly Ivins Day!!!

Posted by: juliania | Jan 31 2025 15:27 utc | 118

President Trump gets it. You, nutjob SoA, DO NOT. It was not exports that resurrected Russia — It was the people!
Happy Molly Ivins Day!!!
Posted by: juliania | Jan 31 2025 15:27 utc | 118
That was beautiful Juliania – and right on ALL points!

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jan 31 2025 15:35 utc | 120

“…..“The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote….”
In other news De-Dollarization accelerates.

Posted by: Exile | Jan 31 2025 15:43 utc | 122

Speaking of tariffs, any country, let’s say the second largest country on the planet, no points for guesses, as rich in resources as say, hmm, the largest country on the planet (relatively), again no points for guesses, ties it’s entire economic existence to a Black Hole….. well, where I’m from they say, “slap it into ya” “you deserve it” and if any country needs it’s Imperial Kunt kicked in, Canada heads the pack.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Jan 31 2025 15:52 utc | 124

Posted by: KOB | Jan 31 2025 6:37 utc | 77
###########
The 4IR will be predicated on Open Source, not Western protectionism and monopoly.
The parallels between fiat money and fiat licensing are obvious for anyone to see.
Both are bubbles that seek to defy objective reality.
Anyone who only sees AI as another investment bubble does not understand the importance of the example I shared. In remote 3rd world areas, medical AI will be transformative.
It’s not the Deepseek code per se but that it runs on underpowered and low cost equipment.
How does Deepseek do it?
Simply, they opened up the unnecessary high precision Western AI demands without compromising the quality of the results. Deepseek may not be as useful to scientists or engineers but it will satisfy every consumer request adequately.
99% is indistinguishable from 99.8% in most use cases involving humans.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 16:18 utc | 126

When a mosquito first emerges onto the water surface from their pupae beneath they look as if made out of living silver, it looks amazing.
Sadly the following Wikipedia page doesn’t have any video or picture of that, but it does have lots of interesting information.
The females want sugar and protein and other goodies from your blood so that they can have lots of eggs. They home in on smelling/detecting carbon dioxide and perspiration and might not prefer humans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito
Wikipedia has this funny tidbit:

“The Russian city of Berezniki annually celebrates its mosquitoes from the 17th of July to the 20th in a “most delicious girl” competition. In the competition, the girls stand for 20 minutes in their shorts and vests, and the one who receives the most bites wins.”

Ouch 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 31 2025 16:33 utc | 128

For those unfamiliar with the term a “moat” is a barrier to entry, essential to monopoly. By definition, a moat is anti-competitive.
Patent, trademark, and copyright are moats. State-sponsored and maintained through the use of force.
Delusion at gunpoint.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 16:40 utc | 130

This morning I see MAGA websites crowing about the launch of tariffs.
Not only are they economically ignorant, they are missing that America’s diminishing competitiveness and debt are byproducts of a hollowed out educational system (school choice may fix that in 60 years), and money printing.
Addressing these issues will never not be crucial to survival of the American state.
Somehow Trump has convinced people that tariffs will pay down the debt. More revenue will be spent. Another income source for the Oligarch class.
Ironically, paid for by the consumers who cannot easily vacation overseas and do not have a second passport.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 16:50 utc | 132

In response to the US plethora of gay men and liberal women videos crying & lamenting the loss of their precious illegals:
It is more primal. The Bad Boys make their panties wet.
Notice how 95% of the illegals are young yung men. Supply and demand. They ((lib wimen & gayz)) (typical hypocritical) are not demanding equality of the sexes in the illegal tide. They get to pick n choose from a bigger pool of pool boyz. Just think if there were 30 million young women that flooded the US instead of men, 1 out of ten, changing the ratio 60-40 women & younger & poorer. That would be almost two girls for every boy – nationwide, not just a past mythical California Beach. How would that change the sexual market place for men? Would that benefit men? Disenfranchise wimen & gayz? The answer is obvious.
AS IS there are 30 million undocumented excess men, skewing that ratio 40% wimin 60% male. Almost Two guys fer every cougar.
Trump & MAGA are messin with their gettin it ON. That’s why they are so so so angry, pissed & frustrated.
The Battle of the Sexes continues.
PS Abundant labor, watering down wages, wiping out culture, lower class civil war (crime by anyother name)… of course. Those are written about and not under the radar. Dis national level subject needs lookin at if you do not want to be stuck as a CuCK, or just another warm dildo, as the case may be.
Regarding the subject of illegal runaway on-the-street immigrant children alone in the cruel wide wrold, that is the stuffing of nightmares. It becomes horrific to look under that rock. Flippin it over it is the child rapists sadistic dream come true.
Sexual politics is similarly a thang in the Old Wrold. Thirst world problems.

Posted by: DaveXY | Jan 31 2025 17:09 utc | 134

John Gilberts@1725 January the end
Useful insights into insider perspectives. Thanks.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 31 2025 17:31 utc | 136

Susan Collin’s will vote to confirm Tulsi because she agreed not to Pardon Snowden. The betting odds now have Tulsi at a slight favorite to get approval (56%, up from 40% last night). Apparently there was a closed door session with the Senators after the hearing in which Gabbard did well.

Posted by: Deniz 152 | Jan 31 2025 17:51 utc | 138

Two losers lament losing

Lagarde and Von der Leyen: Europe has got the message on change
We can no longer squander our strengths with self-imposed handicaps. There is too much at stake
Christine Lagarde and Ursula von der Leyen 3 hours ago
Remaining competitive is fundamental for Europe’s future. We need faster economic growth and higher productivity to protect the quality of life for Europeans — from their jobs and incomes to their security and welfare.
That is why Europe must act. Our competitiveness is at risk. While a global revolution in artificial intelligence unfolds, the EU could find itself on the sidelines. Our traditional manufacturing champions are losing global market share. Geopolitical shifts are turning dependencies into vulnerabilities and burdening our companies with high energy prices.
Europe must and will find its place in this new world. The prospects for our continent are better than they might seem. The EU has strengths on which it can build — and it has a plan to fix its weaknesses.
The “plan” ==> https://www.ft.com/content/fba6b27a-3a72-4451-8c75-ea8533c62681

Please someone, anyone, wake Europe from this nightmare.

Posted by: too scents | Jan 31 2025 18:03 utc | 140

Nathan Tankus has an interesting recent article in his ‘Notes on the Crisis’ series in which he discusses Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid and other ‘impoundment’ issues.
Considering the various attacks on the dollar I thought his conclusion was appropriate.
“ Ordinary Americans are now in danger of learning a lot more about the “legal plumbing” of fiscal policy; far more than they could ever imagine wanting to know. When everything is going well, most people don’t have to think about the plumbing going through their walls. Things aren’t going well.”
https://www.crisesnotes.com/everything-about-the-trump-administrations-impoundment-putsch-you-were-too-afraid-to-ask/?ref=notes-on-the-crises-newsletter

Posted by: financial matters | Jan 31 2025 18:16 utc | 142

No disrespect intended to Wolff or the rest of “the gang”.
There is a topic that repeatedly annoys me every once in a while. It was rather common knowledge during the Cold War.
One thing Richard Wolff (perhaps) and many others, especially Usians and their presidents, get slightly (or completely) wrong or leaves out or is unaware of concerning US “military Keynesianism” (always a mouthful) is that there was and is an open and deliberate strategic military understanding (never formalized afaik because it never needed to be) between the European parts of NATO and the US to have the US act as a “developmental fortress” (aka “fortress of democracy”) for military technology. This even included Canada despite their geographical location.
All the way from early on after (or maybe even before) NATO was formed and increasingly from the late fifties or so.
The reasoning is simple: the Soviets were too close for comfort everywhere else but in the US.
So many examples and the names escape me but off the top of my head both historically and currently we have such things as the British nuclear weapons program, various British rocketry programs, military hovercraft (a British invention), AVRO (Canadian), originally British Harrier Jump Jets (partial), whatever the Norwegian pseudo-hovercraft boats were called, whatever the Norwegian underwater drones are called (Kongsberg isn’t only a Norwegian company but a US one), the originally Norwegian but now Teledyne FLIR Black Hornet PD-180, NASAMS (the N originally stood for “Norwegian” rather than “National”), the list goes on and on and it is in current effect just as much as it ever was. The overrepresentation of Britain and Norway is a random artifact of public notice/visibility, all of NATO is equally in on it.
All of it gets poured into the US. The value is enormous and __not__ measured by bookkeeping profits.
So Trump and many others are entirely wrong about stuff like “x percent” and the US rubbish claims of “we [the US] are paying for it”: the opposite is the truth.
It also encompasses a shitload of research and development, we’re talking thousands and thousands of examples, maybe easily tens of thousands.
Not only physical military hardware but technology, knowledge, abilities, geographical locations, and people.
All of this was by implicit high level agreement so it is much more than only “Keynesianism”.
A few links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledyne_FLIR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledyne_FLIR_Black_Hornet_Nano
Anyway I’ve gotten this off my chest now 🙂
Again: no disrespect intended to Wolff or the rest of “the gang” (Hudson and Alkhorshid) who all get two thumbs up and five out of five stars from me! 😀

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 31 2025 18:26 utc | 144

And yes I do understand that including all of that would have detracted from the point being made. I am not expecting it to be included.
But perhaps a slight change in emphasis and perspective is required.
Anyway, enough on this 🙂

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jan 31 2025 18:32 utc | 146

Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 18:18 utc | 143 Economic innovations relying on new discoveries have typically depended upon the sharing of information. That’s why research universities get so much government money, instead of directly funneling it to corporate R&D. The (should be) famous Bell Labs was funded from profits as part of an anti-trust suit. It is ignorant to assume there is only one way to fund research.
It is not just ignorant but dishonest to assume that monopoly should not be regulated. I should think it a truism that all monopolies should be supervised.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 31 2025 18:40 utc | 148

“….It is not just ignorant but dishonest to assume that monopoly should not be regulated…”
regulatory capture my friend 🙂

Posted by: exile | Jan 31 2025 19:17 utc | 150

DeepSeek-R1 Now Live With NVIDIA NIM
NVIDIA Blog
https://blogs.nvidia.com › deepseek-r1-nim-microservice
19 hours ago — The DeepSeek-R1 NIM microservice simplifies deployments with support for industry-standard APIs. Enterprises can maximize security and data …
Posted by: denk | Jan 31 2025 18:29 utc | 145
Anyone has performaance comparisons between 30 and 50 series and VRAM impact?
Strictly for deepseek

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 31 2025 19:35 utc | 152

Your ignorance of economics is appalling.
Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 18:18 utc | 143
#################
You’re the guy making excuses for monopoly, which increasingly technology is overcoming.
Like Sean Hannity, who insists to this day that Saddam had WMDs.
Have some self-respect. Take the L with dignity.
Hubris isn’t how true winners move.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 20:01 utc | 154

@Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 18:18 utc | 143
The vast majority of useful new drugs are developed within the public sector and only after the risk has been reduced through this research do private sector companies get involved. The drug companies are predominantly investing in “metoo” research to copy already successful drugs, to make minor changes to current drugs to extend their monopoly as well as spending vast amounts on marketing, sales and political lobbying. Stop being a pathetic shill for profiteering asshole corporations.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 31 2025 20:09 utc | 156

When I said the 4IR was going to be Open Source, that will really hit home once Pharma can be 3D printed at home.
We should ask ourselves how much of the DOW and NASDAQ are built upon IP monopoly. That’s a fragile edifice, one which the Axis is well aware of.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 20:23 utc | 158

Posted by: too scents | Jan 31 2025 7:55 utc | 82
You missed the “easy to work with” part. Cuda is nearly 20 years old … there is nearly a generation of people familiar with that API. And BTW , Deepseek uses H100 GPUs for an example.
Try to believe me a little ; what’s earning my bread is making all those shit running by the thousands day & night… for 30 years. We always had some “exotic” hardware (ever heard about Kalray ?) But it was 10% of the rows .. huge max , mostly IBM power (some scientist have a crush for IBM : a “niche market”).
And yes , I know about “generic” API to program in python on any chip … but at best 3% “customers” are using it.
It’s a bit like Windows : most of the people are using it because they have some relative knowledge about making it do roughly what they wanted it to do.

Posted by: Hiro Masamune | Jan 31 2025 21:00 utc | 160

Posted by: MAKK | Jan 31 2025 12:55 utc | 98

The pilot of the Blackhawk had its TCAS (anti-collision system) switched OFF. This made it electronically invisible to nearby aircraft – according to abc.net.au’s Aviation consultant.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 30 2025 17:32 utc | 13
“The TCAS system is inhibited below 500 feet”, …
but they just went below 500″. so it must have been still active seconds before.
But if it was off on the chopper …

If the TCAS was switched off on the chopper, the TCAS on the passenger plane could not have detected the chopper at all, and no TA (“traffic advisory¨) messages would have been issued.
As noted, audible TA messages are “inhibited” once the receiving aircraft is lower than 500 feet above ground level.
Did the chopper also switch off its ADS-B (an independent system that broadcasts an aircraft’s own position)?

Posted by: Pacific Observer | Jan 31 2025 21:41 utc | 162

The man is mad.
Posted by: JB | Jan 31 2025 22:05 utc | 163
##########
Disagree.
Trump is like the falling of the leaves in autumn part of a natural cycle, the inevitable result of an Empire of Capitalism and Colonialism in decline.
None of this should be surprising.
The demagoguery and the self-delusion (of both sides) are likely the results of the supremacist mindset.
And what comes next will also be quite predictable.
The tariffs are exciting. Will Canada fight back (they have a little leverage in electricity, fresh water, and oil), or will they be the first domino to fall, giving Trump the signal he needs to double down?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 22:28 utc | 164

OpenAI and Chat GPT are to AI like “Ask Jeeves” is to web search. A few months and never to be heard from again.
DeepSeek and newer AI will kill those massive server farms of Chat GPT etc.

Posted by: Jonny Law | Jan 31 2025 22:59 utc | 166

“Cannot emphasize enough, DeepSeek as an AI is unimportant.
“The big paradigm shift is the Chinese social belief in Open Source.”
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 31 2025 22:28 utc | 164
That is a profound statement.
I agree, wholeheartedly, -this ‘innovation/disrupter’ AI open sourced sets the stage for growth of the hoi polloi rather than the western strangulation and over charging to the hoi polloi and , hence, less social advancement..
Well done.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 23:51 utc | 168

“@Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 18:18 utc | 143
The vast majority of useful new drugs are developed within the public sector and only after the risk has been reduced through this research do private sector companies get involved (1) . The drug companies are predominantly investing in “metoo” research to copy already successful drugs, to make minor changes to current drugs to extend their monopoly as well as spending vast amounts on marketing, sales and political lobbying. Stop being a pathetic shill for profiteering asshole corporations.”
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 31 2025 20:09 utc | 156
Yes, you are correct alot of basic science is done in the public sector yet the patents remain mostly in the private sector. Gone are the days when a real man, like Dr. Best, a Canadian whom in the 1920’s discovered how to cure diabetes-pig pancreases serum- (my grandmother knew the man, he lived nearby)-gave the patent to mankind yet modern drug companies charge an exorbitant amount as they are monopolies in the private sector without patent-ie Fascism. (1).
1 “The percentage of drugs patented in the public sector versus the private sector varies by country and time period, but historically, the majority of drug patents are held by private companies. Here’s a general breakdown:
Private Sector: 75–85%
Most drug patents are filed by pharmaceutical companies, which invest heavily in research and development (R&D).
The private sector is responsible for bringing most new drugs to market, particularly in high-profit areas like cancer, cardiovascular, and autoimmune diseases.
Public Sector: 15–25%
Universities, government research institutions, and non-profit organizations contribute to drug discovery, especially in basic research.
Publicly funded research often focuses on early-stage drug discovery and neglected diseases that may not be profitable for private firms.
Many breakthrough drugs originate from public research but are later developed and commercialized by private companies.
Notable Examples of Public Sector Contributions
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. has played a major role in developing drugs like the HIV treatment AZT and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (which was initially funded by public research).
A 2020 study found that one in four new drugs approved by the FDA had origins in public-sector research.
Would you like data for a specific country or industry segment?” 92)
2. ChatGPT

Posted by: canuck | Feb 1 2025 0:06 utc | 170

Posted by: exile | Jan 31 2025 19:17 utc | 150 Nothing in politics and government is by solely by virtue of a law immune to chicanery and fraud, or even proof against simple folly. (Given enough time, every complex system will fail in some instance due to the concatenation of improbable events, incidentally, adding the problem of how to even recognize this so-called regulatory capture.) Hence the quote (supposedly from Franklin), “A republic, if you can keep it.”
The real thrust of this phrase is to imply that every attempt at regulation is by its very nature this so-called regulatory capture, that any attempt at government regulation is in practice the cause of market failures and the origin of all manner of social evils. The alleged evil outcomes depend on the more or less random prejudices of the adherents. Bureaucracy, the PMC, the Deep State, poverty, unfair business practices that oppress the productive class (of capitalists,) war, political parties, the list is endless. I suggest common sense suggests that one should at least question an alleged disease that somehow causes such a host of varied symptoms, as if there is nothing else that could have been at work.
I would also suggest that every conservative who moans about regulatory capture ask themselves why every modern state that survives for any great length of time has a professional military. Every army is a regulatory capture of national defense, after all. If the inevitable regulatory capture leads to all evils (against the so-called free market) then the officer corps is intrinsically just as evil. To put it another way, it’s why not all roads are toll roads. The conclusion that you can simply murmur “regulatory capture” needs justification, to say the least.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 1 2025 1:25 utc | 172

Inside China Business

DeepSeek exposes a fundamental advantage of China’s system: their whole economy is open source

Posted by: denk | Feb 1 2025 1:49 utc | 174

Reportedly
VentureBeat
Ai2 releases Tülu 3, a fully open-source model that bests DeepSeek v3, GPT-4o with novel post-training approach
1 day ago
Thats all folks

Posted by: denk | Feb 1 2025 3:01 utc | 176

Much belatedly thanks, waynorinorway | Jan 31 2025 15:35 utc | 120! It was a lovely day here, so I was back to the future spreading leaf mulch on emerging bulbs. I know we’ll get hammered freezewise sometime in February, always do, so protection is warranted. Fortunately I save all fall’s bounty, have plenty to distribute, and it’s been such a dry late winter that it all crunches up very nicely.
The Duran was fun today, especially Mercouris quoting Rubio at length on Ukraine. Politics in Germany are getting interesting as well. My druthers would be that Trump reads Netanyahu the riot act, persuades Egypt and Jordan to temporarily house the Palestinians over the summer whilst Gaza gets rebuilt for them. That’s a big ask and he probably won’t do it, but he could!
As for Netanyahu – get him out of Israel and don’t let him back in!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 1 2025 4:22 utc | 178

10 year ended the week above 4.5%
No cheap debt
No money
No War

Posted by: Exile | Feb 1 2025 5:42 utc | 180

Tarrific! Go Trumpty Go!
Trump Vows To Launch Trade War on EU Amid Tariff Blitz
https://x.com/LegallyPurdy/status/1885506803569479698
“The European Union has treated us so terribly,’ US President complains as Canada and Mexico get nailed.”
For Donald Trump Tariffs Are The Goal Not A Tool
https://MichaelKempa1/status/1885499320574542043
“Tariffs have little to do with porous borders, migrants, drugs or anything other than domestic fiscal policy in US (financing tax cuts).
All the jumping around to try to appease Trump is an ancillary benefit of jerking the string as far as his administration is concerned.”
‘There is great disorder under Heaven. The situation is excellent.’ Mao
Trumpty-Dumpty hastens the ‘great fall’ – of American Empire.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 1 2025 6:05 utc | 182

Trump Vows To Launch Trade War on EU Amid Tariff Blitz
Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 1 2025 6:05 utc | 184
—
A trade war is a funny way to increase the monetary base which the USA must do in order to roll over its obligations. Hilarious in fact.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 1 2025 6:14 utc | 184

Pepe Escobar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcgZAd3tvs
“Trump’s strategic blunder… underestimating the power of BRICS”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 1 2025 6:44 utc | 186

Steven T Johnson, no such thing as monopolies. Utilities are inherently monopolies one off grids or systems, they aren’t like free markets, where monopolies don’t exist.
Of course utilities should be socialized, so there is no issue as you present. You fall for the equivocating free markets, defined by competition and alternatives with utilities markets which inherently lack real competition or alternatives. This is Wolff’s big problem, he’s stuck arguing this stupid false dichotomy, capitalism vs socialism, when every economy has been blended. And the features of utilities markets are distinct from free markets. But, get hung up on red herring fallacies and you never move on

Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 1 2025 7:55 utc | 188

Glenn Diesen:
“Did the US Declare the End of the Unipolar World Order?” (????????????????????????????????????????????)
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/did-the-us-declare-the-end-of-the
It seems the US is finally acknowledging that the “Uni Polar moment” of the US is over.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 1 2025 8:28 utc | 190

@”too scents”:
I think the era of “Superpowers” are over. Now the era of “Regional powers” has begunand I think the US will be one of them.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 1 2025 9:23 utc | 192

America has had tariffs for most of its history and did just fine(1)-and at lower levels than Trump is asking.
…
Posted by: canuck | Jan 31 2025 17:58 utc

That only worked during a time when the USA had far lower government spending as a percentage of GDP … and it seems highly unlikely they can go back to the type of small government existing in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
If Trump imposes moderate level tariffs across the board in an even-handed manner it won’t be a disaster … but it won’t raise anywhere near enough revenue to cover US government debt, nor will it allow him to cut other taxes by a significant amount. The real problem is spending … and ultimately the problem is they are trying to run the world.

Posted by: Tel | Feb 1 2025 10:42 utc | 194

Love Donbass@181
Your comments are usually worth reading; however, the one about Alex Mercouris I do not agree with – “Too much Mercouris is not good for the brain. He’s a dreamer commenting on Realpolitik. Alex is the brains of that operation”..
If you listen to Mercouris last Friday, you would learn about the important interview by Marco Rubio,the SOS of USA, and that is apparently completely ignored by the media – but in which Rubio breaks the mantra of USA as the indispensable nation, break with the unipolar world, and about Prof. Mearsheimer being prescient in 2014 – about the outcome of Ukraine adventure by the USA and the West/NATO. Very well worth listening to, what Mercouris is talking about.
Also, do you mean that Alex is the ‘brain’ of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? Do you give Mercouris that much power? Please, explain.

Posted by: fanto | Feb 1 2025 12:16 utc | 196

freebies galore…
South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com › News › China › Science
10 Jan 2025 — A powerful industrial software that can be used to design electronic warfare weapons has been released for free by Chinese scientists

Posted by: denk | Feb 1 2025 12:59 utc | 198

The Neo-Nazi dictator or the EU or Nato will need to assassinate this guy before he wins the Romanian elections.
Calin Georgescu, a Romanian politician whose first-round victory in the presidential vote was overturned by the nation’s Constitutional Court, has branded Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky a “semi-dictator,” who is afraid of holding an election and keeps sending young men to “hell” on the battlefield.
Georgescu, who is a vocal opponent of Western support for Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia, said in an interview with Realitatea Plus broadcaster on Thursday that he has “all the empathy and respect” for the Ukrainian people, but he also has issues with “corruption and the false attitude” of the politicians in Kiev.
“I would like to ask the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry how many cases of high-level corruption there have been in Ukraine since the war began. How much European money has been stolen by them through a European and implicitly Romanian attempt to help Ukraine?” he stressed.
The Romanian election frontrunner lashed out at Zelensky, saying that he has “a problem with semi-dictators who put their own interests and those of the group they represent before the national interest.”
Georgescu currently leads in opinion polls ahead of the upcoming election re-run in May, and is projected to win 38% of the vote.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 1 2025 13:31 utc | 200