Trumpists have zero self-awareness about who's crazy

 What Made the Democratic Party Go Crazy?

 Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness

 

 

Trump Fires Fed Governor Lisa Cook Over Fraud Allegations

Greg Wehner, FOX Biz

Trump signs order aiming for one-year jail terms for flag burning

Bart Jansen, USA Today

 

Trump repeatedly pointed a finger at Bolton in the days before raids

Natalie Allison

and 

Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

 

Forecasters YUGELY underestimated July producer price increases, aka wholesale prices, forecasting +0.2% month over month, getting +0.9% instead lol

 

Hey, they're only off by a factor of 4.5x.

Low inflation expectations based on June were clobbered by the facts, but to hell with the facts. $SPX is down only 0.07% at this hour.

The market cheerleaders desperately cling to the belief that the Fed must lower interest rates in September. When the numbers come in 0.1 below expectations, they go wild and drive up stocks like madmen believing they must be right. When the forecast misses like this they just hold.

On a year over year basis, the forecast was for +2.5% for overall wholesale prices, but they got +3.3% instead, seasonally adjusted.

For core wholesale prices the consensus forecast was for +2.9% year over year, but they got +3.7% instead, again seasonally adjusted.   

Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, much more than expected

Wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, providing a potential sign that inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Thursday showed.

The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.

Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.9% against the forecast for 0.3%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index was up 0.6%, the biggest gain since March 2022. ...

It's not a potential sign of inflation, you idiots. It's a real sign.

The year over year numbers, not seasonally adjusted, for core wholesale price increases in the July report are oddly unchanged from the June report in no respect, for the increases since October 2024. In fact, the figures are exactly the same to five decimal places. It's like everybody went on vacation and just copied and pasted and went to the beach: 

Nov 2024: 3.35987

Dec 2024: 3.74962

Jan 2025: 3.92532

Feb 2025: 3.73239

Mar 2025: 3.78846

Apr 2025: 3.07652

May 2025: 3.21542

Jun 2025: 2.62853

and Jul 2025: 3.65568.

The average of these Nov thru May is 3.54965. July looks like that, but June sure the hell still does not.

I smell a rat.

Meanwhile . . . 

Core cpi inflation yoy averaged 2.9% in the first half of 2025, but 3.1% in July.

Core pce inflation yoy averaged 2.8% in the first half of 2025 (July numbers come Aug 29th). 

But core wholesale prices were up 3.4% in the first half on average, and 3.7% in July according to today's report.

How long can producers not pass that along? Or do we have a broader issue here with trustworthy numbers, because Mad King Ludwig is in charge?

Mad King Ludwig tariffs gold bars, making liquidity more expensive for big banks

  Gold futures hit record high after report of US tariffs on gold bars

Gold futures climbed to a record high on Friday after a report that the United States had imposed tariffs on imports of 1-kg gold bars, while spot gold stayed on track for a second straight weekly gain on tariff turmoil and U.S. interest rate-cut hopes. ...  

U.S. gold futures for December delivery were up 0.9% at $3,484.10, after hitting an all-time high of $3,534.10.

The price spread between New York futures and spot prices widened by more than $100 after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that the United States had imposed tariffs on imports of 1-kg gold bars, citing a letter from Customs and Border Protection.

The letter, dated July 31, said 1-kg and 100-ounce gold bars should be classified under a customs code subject to higher tariffs, a move that could impact Switzerland, the world’s largest gold refining hub.

The tariffs on gold bars “will create a dislocation or rather some issues in terms of settlement by big banks” and this was reflected in liquidity prices this morning, with prices jumping everywhere, said Brian Lan, managing director at GoldSilver Central, Singapore. ...

 

Mad King Ludwig fires BLS commissioner in a fit of rage over his bad jobs numbers, blaming the messenger

I don't recall Obama firing anybody at BLS in 2011 when there were ZERO jobs created in August.

 

 

Banana republic stuff from the Banana Republican.

Trump is unfit to be president.

 

Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics after weaker-than-expected jobs figures slam markets

 

... “I can’t believe what I just saw,” said Peter Mallouk, president and chief investment officer of Creative Planning. Trump’s social media post seemed like a parody or satire at first, Mallouk said.

 

“This is not healthy,” he added. “We can’t have a set of numbers come out and fire somebody that served under numerous administrations in various roles because you don’t like the numbers.”

William Beach, a 2017 Trump appointee and McEntarfer’s immediate predecessor at BLS, also sharply criticized her firing.

“The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau,” Beach posted on X.

“This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system,” Beach added in a statement. “The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.” ...

GOP U.S. Senate: Feckless lickspittles without two brain cells to rub together propose rebates of surpluses WE DO NOT HAVE

 

The goods trade deficit in May was $96 billion, in June $85 billion.

The only thing that's changed is consumers are now being taxed on those trade deficits. The numbskulls of the GOP U. S. Senate are proposing rebates of these taxes to the people paying them.

It's all completely ludicrous.

It would have been easier simply not to have imposed the taxes in the first place.

If there's a way to lower the standard of living of American consumers, Mad King Ludwig is sure to find it.  

 

Senate introduces bill for tariff rebate checks after Trump suggestion 

 

... The Treasury Department reported an unexpected surplus for June, with a boost from tariff revenue. Customs duties totaled roughly $27 billion for the month, compared to $23 billion in May. The duties reflect a 301% gain from June 2024. ... 

 

 

 

Electricity posts its highest semiannual average price ever in 1H2025, under Mad King Ludwig

 The average price hit a record 19-cents per kWhr in June.

 

 

Chicken eggs in the United States post their highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

Natural gas in the United States posts its second highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

 

That there is so little pushback on this on X proves that American fans of American football have lost the testosterone which animates the game

Mad King Ludwig thinks he can re-name everything.

You know, like a man who thinks he can call himself a woman.

Same denial of reality disease, different expression. 

 

The world plays ‘football’ but the U.S. calls it ‘soccer’: Trump signaled that could change

 

... While the term “football” is widely used for the sport, especially in Europe and much of the world, the U.S., Canada and Australia generally use “soccer” to refer to the game. ...

 

 

 

Mad King Ludwig to impose 50% tariff on Brazil but not on Israel lol

I mean, some countries are more equal than others amirite? 

 Trump To Impose 50% Brazil Tariff, Citing Bolsonaro "Witch Hunt"

Trump brands Netanyahu's corruption trial a 'witch hunt,' calls for it to be canceled

 

Mad King Ludwig restarts agricultural deportations, says the real illegal alien problem is the criminal ones in the big cities

 

Trump yanks brief reprieve for immigrants he said are ‘good, long time workers’

The Trump administration has reopened arrests of immigrant workers at hotels, restaurants and agricultural businesses, backtracking on the brief reprieve they got after President Donald Trump stated they were necessary, good, longtime workers whose jobs were almost “impossible” to replace. ... 

The announcement backpedals on Trump’s statement last week on social media that “changes are coming” after farmers and hotel and leisure business employers had complained that “our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Just six days ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement paused arrests at worksites in agriculture industries, including fisheries and meatpacking plants, restaurants and hotels, according to an internal policy memo obtained by NBC News last Thursday. ...

Asked about the change during a gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from the G7 summit, Trump said: “We’re going to look everywhere. But I think the biggest problem is the inner cities.” ... 

Trump said cities are where “the really bad ones are, the murderers.”

“We’re going to get them out,” Trump said. “There are far more in the inner cities, Democrat-run cities, sadly, and I’m just giving you, there’s far more in there than you have on a farm or someplace.”

Mad King Ludwig, who is quite clearly nuts, says LA would have been completely obliterated had he not sent in the California National Guard, proves it by sending in more, and 700 US Marines

 

“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

“If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated,” said Trump.

Trump called Newsom “incompetent,” and said the governor and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be thanking him, saying “YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.”

More.

Mad King Ludwig's soul is in chaos, full of conflicting desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy: Trump now calls for letting Congress spend without limit weeks after touting tax increases on the rich to pay the bills

 Trump calls for scrapping debt limit  (June 4)

Trump pushes Republicans to have rich pay more taxes (May 8)

Trump pivots, says GOP should ‘probably not’ raise taxes on rich  (May 9)

Trump millionaire tax hike idea upends Republican political wisdom (May 10)

He belongs in a psych ward, not in The White House.

 

Rag-headed heathen bastard King of Qatar to award Mad King Ludwig of America lavishly appointed $400 million 747-8 jumbo jet to use as Air Force One until Boeing gets its act together

 Trump administration poised to accept 'palace in the sky' as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources

Trump poised to accept Qatar jet gift as Air Force One

 

 

 

The bond market is more powerful than both the pope and the president combined, so it's telling that Mad King Ludwig The Impotent does this

 

Mad King Ludwig is in a foul mood this Easter Monday because the Supreme Court ruined his weekend deportation plans

 Trump ramps up attacks on Powell, demands ‘loser’ Fed chair lower rates ‘NOW’

 

NY Governor Hochul tells Mad King Ludwig to go pound sand

 

NY Gov. Hochul says congestion pricing will remain despite federal deadline to end the program Sunday

 

... The Trump administration sought to kill the program on Feb. 19, with the president declaring himself “king” in a social media post that celebrated the potential end of congestion pricing. ...

Hochul fought back, declaring: “The cameras are staying on.” ...

Crimes in high places: Mad King Ludwig admits he decided to pause tariffs early in the morning on Wednesday when he also posted "This is a great time to buy", which amounts to market manipulation

 

 Trump was asked by a reporter on Wednesday when he decided to put a pause on the tariffs. 

“I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it. Fairly early this morning,” he said.

Quoted here in "Fund managers quietly fear Trump doesn't have a tariff plan and that he 'might be insane'".

The tyrant has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy: Mad King Ludwig says zero tariffs not good enough

 

They're all nuts.

 

Vietnam's Zero-Tariff Offer 'Means Nothing'

Peter Navarro, CNBC

Normally you institute protectionist policies like tariffs when you already have something to protect, not before

But our Orwellian Republicans put the cart before the horse.

You can't return to something which no longer exists. The net trade deficit for 2024 is nearly $1 trillion, instead of flat like during the post-war up until Reagan, who first ran in 1976 against Ford, when tariffs still had something to protect but we listened to the siren song of free-trade instead.

That is why the Trump administration has had to cast about for at least six different reasons for instituting tariffs at the present time, none of which are at all convincing otherwise there wouldn't be six of them, not to mention that the math used for them is preposterous, or that they are the farthest thing from reciprocal.

The real reason for them, however, is that the tariffs, like the executive orders which now number over 100, are the immediate strings available to our Puppet Master, which he can pull this way one day and that way another, your ever present reminder of who is in charge around here. Suck up to him and he'll make a deal.

Trump's White House laughably brags about these things.

New taxes, which is what these tariffs are, are liberating don't you see!

Our mad King Ludwig needs this constant adulation. The tyrant has desires which he can never fulfill, Plato warned us.

But of course all this can be undone by the next president, which is no way to run a country. It makes for deep institutional instability and distrust throughout the global economy, for which few can reasonably plan.

The message remains the same: Expect Kaos.