Empire in Decline

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Apparently, the EU is working on a Sundaythis week (which is highly unusual) and they are looking at this document:

Protecting against coercion

The Anti-Coercion Instrument for protecting the EU and its Member States from third countries’ economic coercion entered into force on 27 December 2023.

policy.trade.ec.europa.eu

We will see what next week brings.

 

[Gödel]

Greenland of the Free

 

[Mercutio]

The EU owns around $8T of US Debt. Essentially no entity on the planet could buy all that, and no one other than a close ally would want that much exposure to liability. The value of a dollar would plummet in a re-valuation, absent the backing of those assets by European powers.
I had one semester of economics and one semester of accounting 30 years ago. Donald Trump supposedly has an MBA from a theoretically prestigious college and seems to have no idea about any of this.

By the same token, he wants to replace the chair of the Federal Reserve with his own lackey, with the aim of increasing the supply of dollars available to markets (ie, he wants to print more money). That WILL decrease short term interest rates, but also causes longer term currency devaluation and considerable grief for those who currently hold US Debt, which right now means mostly US and European banks and whatever financial institutions China uses.

It seems that the administration sees value in devaluation of the US dollar, which doesn't make any sense at all to me.

 

[jtr1962]

Right now with what's going one cryptocurrency is looking better and better. Buy bitcoin or ethereum if you have any spare cash. Or even gold. I think gold will skyrocket soon past it's already lofty current price.

The markets are tanking today, which seems to happen every single time Trump mentions more tariffs. You would think he would have learned by now to just keep his mouth shut.

 

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The markets are tanking today, which seems to happen every single time Trump mentions more tariffs. You would think he would have learned by now to just keep his mouth shut.

I would not have too high hopes regarding his cognitive functions though, given the letter to Norway for not giving him the Nobel Peace Price.

On the other hand, I am sure he find ways to make money for him and his friends with these market movements.

 

[Gödel]

Excerpts from this article – Trump Made Over $1.4 Billion Through Graft and Corruption:

One year ago, Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself.​

President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.​

He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.​

Numerous egregious examples are cited.

 

[Mercutio]

I think we all know that ain't nothin' gonna happen over this. We didn't do anything about it last time he was in office and now everything is worse and checks and balances are thrown out the window when one party controls all branches of government.