Friday, April 10, 2026
Post-Reagan GDP underperformed the immediate post-war by over 26%, Trump-era GDP underperforms it by almost 32%
Ronald Reagan didn't make America great again, and neither has Trump.
The watershed tax changes throwing away the threat of high ordinary income taxation under Reagan in 1986 and Trump in 2018 have got to go.
The country needs genuinely domestic, long-term investment to bring back economic growth. Reward that with low tax incentives and penalize everything else.
Rich people OBVIOUSLY haven't demonstrated that they know best what to do with their own money, otherwise they would have done it already.
We watched helplessly year after year, especially after 2000, as one business after another moved its production abroad seeking lower labor and regulatory costs to make themselves rich, not us.
We have to make them reverse it, because they aren't going to do it otherwise. Tax the shit out of them until they do the right thing, and keep the threat of taxes hanging over their heads to keep them doing the right thing.
Real GDP Compound Annual Growth Rates
GDPCA 9 April 2026
1947-1984: 3.638%
1984-2017: 2.679%
2017-2025: 2.476%
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Real GDP for 4Q2025 was revised lower to 0.5% from 0.7% last month in today's final estimate, and CNBC buried the story of a stalling economy
The 0.5% estimate is the annual rate of real GDP growth in 4Q, and the figure doesn't sound like much of a revision until you remember that the estimated annual rate in 3Q was 4.4%.
That's one hell of a drop, whether it's to 0.7% or to 0.5%.
In other words, the economy nearly stalled in 4Q.
Meanwhile real GDP for full year 2025 increased at a measly 2.1% rate.
CNBC buried the bad news in a different story, seven paragraphs down:
Inflation held sticky at 3% as U.S. headed into war with Iran, key Fed gauge shows
... Separately, the Commerce Department reported that economic growth was even slower than previously reported for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced, rose just 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down from the prior reading of 0.7% and the initial estimate of 1.4%. The full-year growth rate held at 2.1%.
The department said the downward revision came primarily to lower investment than previously indicated. ...
Gee, I thought Trump said $18 trillion in investment was flowing into the economy?
Golden Age, my foot.
Meanwhile the initial estimate was cut in half by the second estimate, and the final estimate cut that by nearly 29% more. They were off by only 64% in the end.
Remember, this is all pre-Iran-War-induced oil crisis, too.
It's going to be ugly.
Kevin Asshat says even one tanker is big
Hormuz strait oil traffic way down after ceasefire; Hassett says even one tanker is big
"... being mindful of the fact that if you get one of those big tankers through, that’s 2 million barrels. So that’s a huge chunk of what’s missing," he said.
Before the war, about 20 million barrels of oil were transiting the strait per day. ...
Estimates of supply lost which I have seen today say 9 million barrels per day of supply have been lost, worse than the COVID shutdown.
Some 230 tankers are loaded with oil and waiting to sail out of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, but they can't
The Strait of Hormuz is not open as Iran controls access after ceasefire, UAE oil CEO says
... “This moment requires clarity,” said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber in a social media post. “So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is being restricted, conditioned and controlled.”
Iran has made clear that ships must obtain its permission to pass through the strait, Al Jaber said. “That is not freedom of navigation. That is coercion,” the ADNOC chief said. ...
Trump ceasefire failure: Strait of Hormuz eastbound tanker traffic averages 3.57 tankers per day 2 Apr-8 Apr 2026 lol
Just one tanker out yesterday.
Vessels and deadweight tonnage out are both in the toilet.
Have fun out there, world, filling your tanks, courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.
America is no longer a world superpower because it doesn't have a Navy capable of maintaining freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, let alone in the West Philippine Sea or the Taiwan Strait
But we can still put people in a tin can and send them around the moon like we did already in 1968.
We also don't have a military capable of stopping Russian aggression in Europe, because we're too tired after Iraq and Afghanistan.
Put up or shut up, Ben.
In all four corners of the world, Trump's name is a household name for . . .
... childish, dumb, embarrassing, ignorant, idiot, immature, incompetent, joke, moron, ridiculous, silly, stupid, uneducated, unfit, unpredictable, and unqualified ... bigot, corrupt, crazy, delusional, disastrous, disgrace, evil, greed, hate, horrible, insane, prejudice, racist, sociopath, trash, unstable, and vile ... “ass” or “asshole”, bad, bully, crass, disgusting, disrespectful, jerk, liar, mean, obnoxious, pig, rude, and stubborn ... arrogant, cocky, confident, egomaniac, loud, megalomaniac, narcissist, and selfish.
And that was in May 2020.
Trump on the Strait of Hormuz toll booth: We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it - also securing it from lots of other people. It’s a beautiful thing.
This guy needs to be slowly keelhauled on a VLCC.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Where is this complete, immediate, and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz?
Is it in the room with us right now?
DEEP RED GA-14 which elected Marjorie Taylor Greene by 29 points in 2024 has elected another Republican endorsed by Trump to fill her seat by . . . 14 points
Not as deep red as it used to be when your margin of victory is more than cut in half.
Trump's UN ambassador put this up about an hour before Trump decided to let Iran, out of all the countries in the world, charge a toll to get through an international waterway
20 millions barrels a day passing through is $20 million a day or $7.3 billion a year, going straight into the hands of Iran to build more missiles, drones, and nuclear weapons for to wipe Israel off the map and rule the Middle East.
Brilliant.
I'm sure all our new friends in the Persian Gulf who let us build bases to protect them are just thrilled.
Trump belongs in a padded cell, not the Oval Office.
The world is spitting at us in contempt this morning.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Taki, who thinks it's 431 BC, takes time out from his debaucheries to scold The Donald that Iranians are going to experience terrible suffering, and Americans eventual defeat
Arrogance led to the Athenian demise, no doubt about it.
But like the good Spartan that he is, he doesn't consider that it might be 490 BC instead, seeing how he and his European friends are too busy with feasting to come to the aid of our age's Athens at Marathon.
Here.
Monday, April 6, 2026
Everybody is getting into the authoritarian business of giving themselves the power to decide something they don't like is terrorism so that they can suppress it
... Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure that gave him and other state officials the power to designate groups as "terrorist organizations" and expel students who support them, with rights groups saying the law will chill free speech.
The law empowers the state's chief of domestic security, governor and cabinet to designate any organization they determine engages in extremist acts as a "terrorist organization."
After such a designation, the group can be forcibly dissolved and face a freeze on state funding, according to the legislation. It also says that students shall be expelled from their institution if they "promoted a domestic terrorist organization or a foreign terrorist organization." ...
My favorite phrase from this essay: "To the extent that there’s an intellectual foundation for Trumpism . . ."
Very amusing.
There's a lot riding on the outcome of the Hungarian elections for certain "conservatives" next week.
It's mostly about Gladden Pappin, but is useful for describing the connections between Hungary and other American figures like J. D. Vance, and also the Danube Institute bankrolling Rod Dreher (unmentioned), helmed by National Review veteran John O'Sullivan:
Another English-speaking member of this species is John O’Sullivan, a former speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher. O’Sullivan is the founder and president of the Danube Institute, which receives funding from Orbán’s government and stays relentlessly on message. Last year, the institute put on an event called Is Transgenderism Dying?” With nearly two weeks to go before the election on April 12, the institute hosted a summit featuring a video address by the deputy U.S. secretary of state, Christopher Landau, and in-person remarks from one of his advisers. Weeks earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had traveled to Budapest and told Orbán, “Your success is our success.” The Danube Institute event reinforced that message by giving U.S. diplomats pride of place in the program. “It’s very comforting to know that we have allies like you,” an institute employee told the Americans at the conference’s conclusion.
Jonathan Turley was writing a pretty good column until he got to "We have allowed U.S. citizenship to become a mere commodity for the most affluent or unscrupulous among us"
He never mentions that with one hand Trump wants to end birthright citizenship in this court case and with the other sell citizenship to 37 million foreigners at $1 million each to nearly wipe out the national debt.
I say nearly because the national debt has exploded to $39 trillion since Trump first proposed this crackpot gimmick in February 2025.
Trump's only ideas about America are about money and getting more of it.
Turley tries to square the circle but remains no friend of the blood and soil conservatives who framed the constitution for "our posterity".
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Judas' silver is up 2% year to date, gold is up 8%
Silver: $73.77 USD +$1.49 USD +2.06% YTD
Gold: $4,693.90 USD +$359.60 USD +8.3% YTD
Saturday, April 4, 2026
Ronald Reagan's goal of a 600-ship U.S. Navy made it to 594 in 1987, but in 2026 we can barely deploy 300 because of Bill Clinton, but Trumpty Dumpty never mentions that
After the end of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, Bill Clinton gutted the Navy.
We went from 541 ships in 1992 to 336 by 1999.
And now we can't stop the Houthis in the Red Sea, nor Iran in the Persian Gulf.
Friday, April 3, 2026
Thursday, April 2, 2026
So Lori Chavez-Deremer at the Department of Labor had a good long lie-in past NOON today and didn't get the initial claims numbers to FRED until 4:16PM EDT
These numbers are routinely updated not long after the 8:30am press release in previous administrations.
Drudge is running propaganda for the Chicom bond market now
https://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0327/c90000-20440521.html
... "By allocating to RMB bonds, foreign investors can reduce portfolio volatility and improve risk-adjusted returns." ... "In the face of frequent geopolitical risks, the safe-haven role of RMB bonds has emerged," Yu said, adding that as the RMB internationalization progresses, demand for RMB assets as reserves is growing, and this is expected to support the growth of RMB bonds holdings by central banks and sovereign wealth funds.
LOL, what a crock.
Foreign investors own less than $1 trillion of Chinese debt, compared with over $9 trillion of U.S. debt.
... [U.S.] Treasuries are relied upon by global central banks as the pre-eminent reserve asset, since the $30tn market for the securities is the biggest and deepest in the world. ...
More.
Trump fires another woman
Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi
... “Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900,” the president wrote.
“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump said.
Bondi, in a statement on X, said, “Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.” ...
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican whose bill mandating that the DOJ release all files related to Epstein became law in late 2025, said in an X post, “I support Trump firing Pam Bondi. Do you?”
“I hope the next AG will release all the Epstein files according to the law and follow up with investigations, prosecutions, and arrests,” Massie said. ...
Some foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities are selling them to buy oil, which is denominated in DOLLARS, not in yuan
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
DXY: 99.893
Foreign central banks sell US Treasuries in wake of Iran war
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
She's so . . . u n u s u a l
Sotomayor: Do You Want to 'Unnaturalize People?'
... Sauer replied, “No, we believe the court should do what it did in Sessions v. Morales-Santana, where there was a ruling that would have deprived people who are already citizens of citizenship, and the court said this applies prospectively only. We think that’s the appropriate course here. ..."
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