HALF-FULL REPORT 04/12/24
It’s just too irresistible to start this HFR with the greatest clickbait headline not just of the week, but of modern times. Ready?
Daily Mail, 4/06: Why Sydney Sweeney And Her Double-D Breasts Are Being Hailed As Proof That Woke Culture Is Dead.
“Sydney Sweeney is one of Hollywood’s hottest rising stars, with a recent hit in rom-com Anyone But You, and Spider-Man spin-off Madame Web. Still only 26, Sweeney produces her own films and has unexpectedly become more than an actress.
The all-American blue-eyed blonde with corn-fed curves has become a cultural phenomenon, her unashamed sexuality embraced by America’s conservative Right as proof that woke culture is dying, if not already dead. Movie critic Amy Hamm says:
‘We’ve spent years being chastised for desiring or admiring beauty – because beauty is rare and exclusionary, and to exclude is to hate – or so we’ve been scolded to accept by today’s diversity, equity, and inclusion fanatics. We aren’t supposed to admire Sweeney’s beauty; but we’ve done it anyways. The times, they are a-changin’.’
Yes, they are. From J.K. Rowling’s courageous success against tranny-worship to Sweeney being an unapologetically sexual woman movie star, the culture is shifting rapidly from insanity to sanity. America is becoming normal once again.
We’re not there yet by far, but heading right for it. The direction of culture drives the direction of politics, as you know. The harbinger is clear for what will happen on November 5. This is genius:
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Another indication that wokeness is dying came from Pope Francis and the Vatican on Monday (4/8): Vatican Declares Gender Theory and Transgender Surgery Violate Human Dignity. Dignitas Infinita, Latin for ‘Infinite Dignity,’ states:
“A prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference. This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference but is also the most beautiful and most powerful of them. In the male-female couple, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us: the arrival of new human beings in the world.”
Pope Francis is coherent and moral here. Good for him.
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This is the best Trump campaign ad ever made – on Monday (4/08) by a Woketard TikTok “influencer” who thinks she’s making a powerful argument against him. This brainless TikTokker hasn’t a clue she’s listing all the reasons why voters are going to elect Trump in a tsunami. Laugh, cheer, and enjoy!
This tiktoker accidentally made the best Trump campaign ad. I was already convinced but this sounds incredible! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ptyhHa18t6
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 7, 2024
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I really really hope you’ve been paying close attention to Skye, who’s been warning us for months that the markets have been booming because they priced in interest rate cuts, which Skye warns, are not going to happen with inflation sure to come raging back. And sure enough, here we are. Hope you’re thanking Skye now for wisely protecting your investments. (Stocks Under Retreat reports the WS Journal today 4/12.)
Skye’s main point was that Fed Chair Jerome Powell understood his #1 job was to maintain the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Massive government deficit spending causing high inflation combined with near-zero interest rates would be a fatal blow to the dollar’s integrity, so Powell had no choice but to start raising interest rates to at least normal levels and keep them there as long as necessary. US 10-years are now a small fraction under 5% and may go up to 7%, not lower.
It is a very dangerous tragedy that Trump does not understand this. On Wednesday (4/10):
This is flat-out unadorned economic illiteracy, or innumeracy. The horrid truth is that Trump is just as big a government deficit spender as any lefty Dem – he just has very different priorities on what to spend money stolen from taxpayers. He has no concept of how artificially low interest rates lead to gargantuan malinvestments that never have an ROI.
ZH yesterday (4/11): US Deficit Tops $1.1 Trillion For First Six Months Of Fiscal 2024 As Spending Hits 2024 High. This is what is driving inflation, and neither Biden nor Trump have a clue of what to do about it. Both want lower interest rates from the Fed, which, of course, will result in higher inflation. Powell is doing his best to save the dollar and the US economy, and Trump has the audacity to claim he won’t lower rates to protect Biden when Trump wants the same thing!
The only solution here is massive curtailment of government spending. The only way to achieve that is to eliminate entire federal government agencies that have no enumerated constitutional power to exist and are thus unconstitutional. Here, Trump is on track, having publicly stated he intends to completely abolish the entire Department of Education and the EPA.
Doing both would be enormously beneficial for the economy, not to mention saving lives, brains, and freedom. But the deficit biggies are Social Security and Medicare – along with the biggest of all now, interest on the $32 Trillion federal debt (currently at $1.1 Trillion and climbing). The solution is to open up the US Continental Shelf for oil & gas extraction, sharing royalties with the relevant states for the first 12 miles offshore, and devoting the all the rest of the royalties to insuring the viability of Social Security and Medicare, and reducing the debt.
Another solution is Ayn Rand’s. She well knew what a necessary condition the rule of law – legality – was for any civilization to flourish. Her proposal was a small contract tax that any two parties would pay to have their agreement be legally binding.
That’s voluntary, as the parties could just have a handshake agreement and good luck. But they would have to pay a fee to have legal recourse in the US court system. When you think of the sum total of contractual agreements in the US economy which require legal recourse in case of dispute, that’s many trillions. A small (and capped to remain small!!) fraction of those trillions to pay down the federal debt could be an effective solution.
In any regard, El Donaldo needs a briefing on all this to square him away and cure his economic illiteracy. Come on, Don, you’re a fast learner – you can do it!
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When Paul Volker was Fed Chair (1979-1987) under Reagan, he had to raise interest rates to over 20% to prevent runaway inflation. Trump is in luck that he won’t have to get remotely near that (as above, probably around 7%). Powell knows what the dollar has going for it: it’s by far the least bad currency such that no other could compete against it.
Not the euro, which is a regional currency (the EU and a few other places), and has higher inflation and taxes than the US. Russia’s ruble is a joke, and now we learn the Chicom yuan is in trouble: From today, ZH (4/12): China Exports Collapse, Prompting Yuan Devaluation Fears.
“China’s export growth tumbled in March compared to last year, sparking questions about a possible yuan devaluation at a time when China’s biggest mercantilist competitor in Asia – Japan – has intentionally cratered its currency.
The bottom line is that Beijing continues to be trapped: either keep the currency artificially “stable” and suffer continued trade loss to competitor Japan which is crushing its currency, or devalue the yuan and regain the mercantilist throne, however at the expense of massive capital outflows.”
And on Wednesday (4/10): Fitch’s Negative Outlook For China Is More Bad News For Its Stalling Economy.
“Fitch Ratings has cut its outlook for China, adding to the gloom surrounding the world’s second-largest economy. Beijing is likely to pile up more debt as it tries to ‘transition away from property-reliant growth to what the government views as a more sustainable growth model, the credit ratings agency said. It cut its outlook from stable’ to ‘negative.’
The move comes after Moody’s Investor Services, another major credit-rating agency, also downgraded its outlook for China to ‘negative’ in December.”
As a result, the party’s over: As China’s Economy Falters, So Does Middle-Class Confidence.
“The economic anxiety is on display all over China.
On social media, users share hacks to save money. Public libraries are filled with working-age people who are searching job sites and polishing résumés or who just need somewhere to go.
Young urban professionals also appear to be driving a surge in sales of lottery tickets. About 85% of purchasers were ages 18 to 34, compared with about 55% in 2020, the Chinese research firm MobTech reported.
Young people in China have to contend with a higher unemployment rate, which reached 14.9% in December for those ages 16 to 24, compared with 8% in the U.S., according to the Federal Reserve.”
Thus Trump will be in a far better bargaining position with Xi’s China as 47 than he was as 45.
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NATO countries all over Europe are rearming Ukraine as fast and as much as they can. Today (4/12), geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan has this assessment of Russia now:
“Recent events in the Ukrainian War have shed light on the state of Russia’s ability to resupply its war effort. Even elite Russian troops are being forced to rely on older, reserve equipment—including tanks built well over half a century ago. Moscow’s deep inventory of Cold War-era materiel has kept Russian troops in the fight, but not necessarily fighting: a recent attack by Ukrainian forces in Zaporizhzhia eliminated most of a Russian airborne division fighting in tanks likely older than their fathers.
While Moscow has plenty of old equipment to churn through in its attempt to drag Kyiv back into its orbit, the same cannot be said for its ability to place more bodies on front lines. Russia’s post-soviet demography was already a mess before the war. Combined with hundreds of thousands of casualties due to the war, and estimates of up to a million fighting age men who have slipped out of the country, and Russia is facing a grim inversion of its WWII challenges:
While it may have plenty of (aging, derelict) equipment with which to wage war on its neighbors, young men are becoming much harder to find and even harder to replace.
The result? Russia and its war machine have shifted strongly from expansion to maintenance—and all this narrowly balanced against competing Russian economic and political interests. While this does not mean that Russia’s war in limited to Ukraine, it does mean that the timeline for Russian action ends firmly. Does a shortened window of Russian capability mean a decreased likelihood of Russian aggression? Far from it, sadly.”
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Let’s close with this delightful review of a new book, which I just downloaded on my iPad and will be reading over the weekend. Here is the Amazon link for you to do so as well.
Joe Biden’s Former Stenographer Publishes Book on Why He Should be in Prison. Yes! Lock him up!