Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Populism means speaking fifty words of English: Pete Hegseth joins Marco Rubio in his own more welders, less philosophers moment

Take courage people!

You too can become populists just like Pete and Little Marco. Just get your degrees from Princeton and Harvard and the Universities of Florida and Miami.

 

 



Monday, May 5, 2025

Overall US Treasury yields have been falling for a year, but not by very much in the aggregate, and bonds keep asking for a word

Average US Treasury yields in April vs. March were down but up in comparison on Friday May 2nd after Trump meddled again in the Fed's business.

The yield aggregate of eleven securities down: 4.19 in April vs. 4.243 in March, but back up to 4.234 on Friday.

Bills down: 4.205 in April vs. 4.26 in March but up to 4.242 on Friday.

Notes down: 3.966 vs. 4.082 but up to 4.002 on Friday.

Bonds up: 4.725 vs. 4.615 and up some more to 4.80 on Friday. Investors are demanding more return from bonds because they perceive risk to be rising for long duration holdings.

The overall picture since January 2024 though shows yields falling as the rate of inflation has slowly declined. The black line below shows the average of the aggregate peaking in April 2024.

The 10-year Note at 4.33 on Friday matches the Daily Federal Funds Rate exactly, same as the 3-month.

Speaking of which, 10Y-3MO has been screaming "major recession" since October 2022, but to no avail.

 


 


I'm so embarrassed for my country

 




Sunday, May 4, 2025

Because they are gay

 Why men are shaving off their eyelashes...

tl;dr

 


 

Impeach him a hundred times if we have to: Trump lies that jury trials are needed for immigration cases

 Trump, asked if he has to 'uphold the Constitution,' says, 'I don't know': Trump said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he’s following lawyers’ advice as he tries to execute rapid deportations, arguing that giving immigrants due process is time-consuming

 
... "We’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials", he said. ... That would not require full trials, as Trump suggested. ...

This is the same slow-walking of the law and trying an end run around the law and fundamental disrespect for the law that we see all too often and increasingly from presidents from both political parties.
 
We are either a nation of laws or we are no longer America.
 
Sick of this bullshit.

The War Powers clock is ticking: The US military has been bombing Yemeni Houthis since March 15 but the Houthis can still strike Israel

 



A missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war 

... Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport. ...


Saturday, May 3, 2025

Trump's tariffs will bankrupt thousands of American businesses and millions will be unemployed as a result

 So says Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, in The Wall Street Journal, here:

... If the tariffs on Chinese goods continue at this rate, he says, thousands of American companies will fail and millions of employees will lose their jobs. ...

When the pandemic clogged up supply chains, he rented a boat so he could tour the Port of Long Beach, Calif., and see the bottlenecks for himself.

When he’s not cruising around ports for information, he’s getting it directly from his company’s 13,000 customers. They are companies that sell electronics, furniture, clothing, toys, diapers, pet feeders—basically everything. He makes it a priority to talk with as many of them as he possibly can. ...

This past week, he traveled from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., where he spent two days meeting with government officials to make the case that tariffs pose an existential threat to his customers. ...





Apparently some idiot in the White House fed Trump the $1.98 price of wholesale, unfinished gasoline as the price paid by consumers at the pump

... Trump repeated this inaccurate assertion about three $1.98 states at least three times this week. Then, during a commencement address at the University of Alabama on Thursday night, he used an even lower figure. ...

More.

 


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

 


Friday, May 2, 2025

Because no one competent wants the stink on them

 Rubio Now Serving as Sec of State, National Security Adviser, U.S. Archivist and Head of USAID -- All at Once!

Yields had been falling significantly in recent days, until Trump opened up his big fat yap this morning lol

 

 

 

Federal employment is 1.1% of civilian population in April 2025: This is the swamp billionaires want to drain

 The worst it ever got was 2.4% in December 1952 while Truman was still president.

The leisure class of state capitalism has to have something to complain about. 

 



As of April 2025, Trump's own government reports that just 26,000 federal employees have lost their jobs since January despite Elon Musk's Chain Saw Massacre ROFLMAO

 




49.4% worked full time in April 2025

 

Wei Tu Lo

37.54% eating but not working in Trump's America in April 2025

 


Trump's word is meaningless: Mike Waltz goes from secure job as National Security Advisor to UN Ambassador in a matter of just a few days

Something Elise Stefanik also knows only too well lol.

 Trump national security advisor Mike Waltz leaving post after Signal scandal

... Trump earlier this week told The Atlantic that Waltz’s job was secure. ...

Asked if Hegseth would stay in the administration longer than Waltz, Trump replied, “Waltz is fine. I mean, he’s here. He just left this office. He’s fine. He was beat up also.” ...

 


 

 

 

Once again, Trump is wrong because the executive does not possess the line-item veto

 

 
This is simply another example of executive branch overreach.
 
Funding for NPR and PBS, with which I disagree, is lawful. It has been passed by Congress and signed into law by the executive.
 
This executive can't simply come along and exercise a veto after that fact.
 
Rule by executive order is not republicanism.
 
We are either a nation of laws or we are not.

Trump is the enemy of the America I once knew.
 
 
 
 

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Resolution by Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul to scrap Trump's craziest tariffs fails 49-49

 Senate resolution to scrap Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs fails despite some GOP support 

A Senate vote to scrap President Trump’s wide-ranging “Liberation Day” tariffs narrowly failed on Wednesday, sparing Republicans a second consecutive blow as the president’s trade policy continues to face opposition. 

Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Ky.) — voted in favor of the resolution alongside every present Senate Democrat. 

But Democrats ran into attendance problems. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was absent, along with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who had voted in favor of a similar bill reversing tariffs on Canada earlier this month.

The final tally was 49-49.

McConnell and Whitehouse had both missed the two votes earlier in the day. One Senate GOP member told The Hill that McConnell was sick and unable to vote. ...

Since 2007 nominal GDP has been growing at a compound annual rate nearly 40% worse than the rate which prevailed from 1947 to 2007

1Q1947-1Q2007: 7.01%

1Q2007-1Q2025: 4.23%

 


 

The March 2025 core pce inflation rate of 2.64% year over year is still 72% higher than the 1.53% average 2008-2020