The Frankish Reich

Market futures imply all major indexes will open down 4-7%. Even Bitcoin is down. Oil is tanking. Margin calls are coming. Trump will stupidly/unconvincingly declare victory over something or other and back down. His billionaire false friends can't take it anymore. I say it happens by tomorrow (Monday 4/7) afternoon. Anyone disagree?

Oh, and all market futures down on the order of 4% tonight. Look, we all know that even the stupid and mulish Trump will find some lame excuse to put his tariffs "on hold" or some such thing, probably declaring victory because Indonesia didn't retaliate or some such thing. But for now, he's letting it ride all the way to Hooverville. And of course small caps are getting hit the hardest - they are least able to adjust supply chains or eat short-term tariff losses.

Good news! WTI crude futures now under $60 Bad news! Traders are factoring in a recession with associated drop in demand Worse news! How you gonna make 'em drill drill drill baby when the market price drops below production costs? It's almost as if it's not so simple as raise tariffs, make America great.

No. The point is Jake Tapper disavowed being a liberal, just as Fox New tries to convince us that they are fair and balanced.

Clearly true. They used retail instead of wholesale.

Western Lensman doesn't question that Fox News is "fair and balanced."

First: yes, this is a ridiculous prosecution. She did not personally threaten anyone. In America it would be protected, albeit ugly, speech. Second: now do the Columbia protesters who said "from the river to the sea." You know, the ones you demanded the authorities shut up. You know, the ones that caused Trump to try to cut off all federal monies to Columbia because they didn't arrest/expel/deport/whatever the protesters or social media pro-Palestine commenters. Free speech exists to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech needs no special protections.

Dr. Effing Google BS mournebrates: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/health/measles-death-texas.html

Unstable idiot.

If there is some type of "joke" there beyond calling a gay dad's leave "maternity" instead of "paternity," it escapes me. But laugh on, children!

So fascinating. Looks like flying over Greenland on the way to Stockholm. Could've fooled me. Well worth the $55 million ticket!

If those small businesses believed that the "reciprocal tariffs" are here to stay, they'd really have no choice but to go out of business right now. The imported wine shop is well and truly effed. There's no way they can survive with 20% tariffs on every case they buy. But almost nobody believes Trump is that crazy, that power mad. Or that the Congress is that subservient. So they will try to stay in business, eating much of the cost of the tariffs, maybe laying off some staff, until sanity returns. They'll dip into their own savings to keep the business afloat. They are totally at the mercy of one guy: Donald J. Trump. And boy does he love that feeling.

True. Trump wouldn't have won with only true MAGAs. He needed to pull in a sizable number of prior Biden/Obama voters. I'm enjoying the "Rich Guy Slips Up and Tells Us What He Really Thinks" moments. First, Commerce Secretary Lutnick: if you complain about a missed social security check, you're probably a fraudster. Anyone else can just wait. Now, Treasury Sec Bessent says people approaching retirement don't really care about or watch the markets https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/bessent-americans-retire-arent-worried-stock-market-recession-rcna199892 Yeah, right. Let's say you've been successful and financially prudent. You have a 401k worth a million bucks. Or it was worth a million buck a week ago. Now it's worth less than $900,000. Remember, you're a conservative investor. You're a 60 year old male. You had planned to buy a life annuity to eliminate risk of loss. Last week that annuity would've paid you about $5700 a month. Add social security and any other pension and you're sitting pretty. Now that annuity would pay only about $5100 a month. Big deal, says Bessent. That's only $600 a month. Only $7200 a year. Who cares? Chump change. Hell, hubby John and I paid the surrogate 5X more than that. That's our oligarchy. Government by the billionaire class. Miss a check, be late on rent? So what. Work another two year to replenish that 401k? No biggie.

Right. https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/stop-looking-for-methods-in-the-madness

From Eric Columbus: This is like O.J. attending Nicole’s funeral (which he did, and for the same reason).

I think white male native born (except of illegal immigrants!) non-felon landowners is what he's trying to say.

Absolutely. Small businesses operate on small inventories. I can sell that case of champagne for $1000 today that I bought from a wholesale distributor for $900. 10% profit margin. But to replenish my inventory, I'm gonna need to pay that distributor $1080. Where's that excess cash lying around to pay the extra 20%? Answer: there isn't any. I've gotta charge maybe $1100 for that case of champagne to have enough to keep my inventory up to sell the next case. And that's with me eating way more than half the cost of the tariff, which doesn't leave me with enough margin to keep my 5 employees on board. Maybe I let one go and work a few more hours myself. And so on.

Conveniently including a Texas stop where he can do a victory dance at the grave of the second child (unvaxxed) measles victim.

I like the spell check - "terrors" (tariffs)

Recommendation for all Sane Non-Troll Posters: do not feed the troll. This is a duplicate thread made by some fool so he can try to commandeer the conversation in the dumbest possible direction. There is a better thread on Trump and Tariffs. Ignore ("my favorite word in the English language") his stupid copycat threads. Let him self-pleasure he as much as he wants. I will not post on his threads anymore. He is, of course, free to ignore my threads. Which he won't.

And it's the return of Jimmy Carter! A little self-sacrifice in this latest Time of Malaise.

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean, but I'm pretty sure it's Marxist.

Hmm, Britain got the 10% default tariff and is trying to make the best of it. It advantages Britain relative to most U.S. trade partners. Hardly a resounding endorsement when you start off "we disagree"