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Friday, January 31, 2025
Core pce inflation in 2024 at 2.8% remains higher than at any point since 1992, progress down looks stalled since 1Q2024: The Fed's weak tea hasn't worked
Gold hits new record high of $2,800.99, climbs as high as $2,817.23 before the close
Gold prices scaled an all-time high on Friday, briefly touching the $2,800 mark, as market participants rushed to the safe-haven asset after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his tariff threats.
Spot gold steadied at $2,795.52 per ounce, after hitting a record peak of $2,800.99 earlier in the session. Prices rose more than 6% for the month and 1% for the week.
U.S. gold futures were little changed at $2,820.10.
More.
PM Update:
Gold prices surpassed the key $2,800 mark for the first time ever on Friday, fuelled by a rush to safety on U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, which heightened concerns about global economic growth and inflationary pressures.
Spot gold rose 0.6% to $2,810.55 per ounce, after hitting a record high of $2,817.23 earlier in the session.
U.S. gold futures were little changed at $2,822.90, trading at a premium to spot gold rates.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Trash headline from Drudge says airline CEO blames US Army for last night's collision at DCA
I've watched the videos. He doesn't blame anybody. The helicopter collided with the passenger jet on its descent to land at Reagan National. We don't know why.
Meanwhile Trump is already shooting his mouth off about DEI under his predecessors being to blame when there are still bodies in the wreckage in the water.
Trump sucks. Drudge sucks.
You'd think a 71-year old guy like RFK Jr would know something about Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D, but you would be wrong
He is not qualified, on top of being a lunatic.
RFK Jr. stumbles over basics of Medicare, Medicaid during Senate confirmation hearings
When asked what Medicare Part A is for, Kennedy said it is “mainly for primary care or physicians.” Hassan clarified that it is coverage for seniors who receive inpatient care at hospitals.
Kennedy, when asked what Medicare Part B is, said it is “for physicians and doctors.” Part B is coverage for a range of medical services such as doctor visits, outpatient care, home health, certain medical supplies and preventive services.
When asked what Medicare Part C is for, Kennedy called it “the full menu of all the services – A, B, C and D.” Hassan noted that Part C is also known as Medicare Advantage, which are privately run plans contracted by Medicare. Those plans serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare plans.
Kennedy insisted that he “just explained the basics” of the program, but Hassan said she had to correct him on several things.
On the surface today's report of real gross domestic product is actually pretty good
The first estimate of real GDP for 4Q2024 and for annual 2024 has been reported here, 2.3% and 2.8% respectively.
On a big picture basis, the compound annual growth rate for real annual GDP 2020-2024 came in at 3.55% per annum, which compares very favorably with 1929-2007 at 3.45% per annum.
Unfortunately 2007-2024 is still wallowing at 1.957% per annum.
The country got over the Great Depression, but we're still working on the Great Recession.
Germany's Friedrich Merz angers ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel over harder line against "irregular migration" supported by AfD
Merz, determined to show his center-right Union bloc’s commitment to cutting irregular migration after a deadly knife attack last week by a rejected asylum-seeker, put a nonbinding motion to parliament calling for Germany to turn back many more migrants at its borders, although it might need AfD’s backing to pass. The measure squeaked through thanks to the far-right party’s support. ...
Merz took over the CDU after Merkel, a former rival, stepped down as chancellor in 2021. A more conservative figure, he has taken a more restrictive stance on migration. He said last week that Germany has had a “misguided asylum and immigration policy” for a decade — since Merkel allowed large numbers of migrants into the country. ...
AfD lawmakers celebrated after Wednesday’s vote while others sat stony-faced. Merz said he had sought a majority in the “democratic center” and he regretted that didn’t happen. But he also insisted that “a correct decision doesn’t become wrong because the wrong people approve it.”
On Friday, the [Christian Democratic] Union plans to call a vote on months-old proposed legislation that calls for an end to family reunions for migrants with a protection status that falls short of asylum. The measure also could pass with AfD votes, though it would need approval from parliament’s upper house, which is uncertain.
More.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Bill Kristol and leftists of his ilk are numbskulls on birthright citizenship, which 83% of the world eschews unlike us
... One of my critics on the “conservative” Left who once claimed to be an originalist illustrates the point. He says that the simple fact of birthright citizenship being “age-old” makes it somehow sacrosanct. There is not even a pretended appeal to the Constitution. Beyond this, someone with a philosophic education ought to know that it is a mistake to identify the old with the good. Even if it were not, his argument still fails on its own terms. Before the Wong Kim Ark decision of 1898, America did not have birthright citizenship. Hence the true “age-old” practice—going back to the beginning of the republic—is not to have it. If the old is the good, why is the younger birthright citizenship practice sacrosanct but the prior, and far-older practice of granting citizenship only to the children of citizens and lawful immigrants bad?
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the quality of “conservative” argument in 2018. ...
A social compact that can be joined contrary to the will of its existing members is an impossibility, a self-contradiction.
It’s no wonder, then, that only around 30 countries out of nearly 200
practice birthright citizenship. The highest accounting that I have
seen says 33. There are 197 countries in the world (193 UN members, two
observers, and two non-members). Thus 83% of the world’s nations do not
allow birthright citizenship. Those countries that do have a combined
population of 958 million (in all cases, rounding estimates up in order
not to be accused of fudging the numbers in my direction). According to
the UN, the world population is today 7.6 billion. Our “conservatives”
insist that opposition to birthright citizenship is “nativist,
xenophobic, bigoted, racist, white nationalist, white supremacist” and
more. This means that 6.642 billion of the world’s people (give or take)
must also be “nativist, xenophobic, bigoted, racist, white nationalist,
and white supremacist.” The latter two would truly be something, given
how few of those people are white. ...
More.
Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and
is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered,
comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's
welcome. We all pay an involuntary homage to antiquity. ... To the great
majority of mortal eyes, Time sanctifies everything that he does not
destroy.
-- Charles Mackay
Michael Anton made a persuasive case that if America could correct the error of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, surely it can correct the error of the Wong Kim Ark decision of 1898
... Before the Wong Kim Ark decision of 1898, America did not have birthright citizenship. ...
Can we do it without a war this time, please?
Bill King is skeptical that Donald Trump's birthright citizenship gambit will be fruitful
Here:
Adopting a rational immigration system that included better criteria for granting citizenship would greatly benefit our country. Many of the issues surrounding birthright citizenship are the legacy of the inability of Congress to enact such a rational system. I wish I believed Trump’s executive order might spur a thoughtful debate and legislative action in that direction. But sadly, our representatives from both sides of the aisle seem more interested in demagoguing the issue than working together to enact a rational system.
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
Ugly Americanism is not the way
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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