Notes Today: 

• Judge Luttig: every US official is "obligated" under the 14th Amendment "to determine whether Donald Trump qualifies to be put on the ballot." If a state or local official finds he is disqualified, he says, "it will quickly move to the Supreme Court."

• 14th sec 3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

• China began military exercises in the seas and skies around Taiwan as a stern warning to separatists and foreign forces”. 

• Confidence in the world’s second-largest economy (China) is slumping as authorities frantically step-up efforts to bolster financial markets. 

• Japan’s overall economy, expanded 5.3% in the past decade, far less than the U.S.’s 23% growth and mainland China’s 83%. 

• At a summit hosted by President Joe Biden at Camp David, America, Japan, and South Korea agreed to step up military co-operation. 

• A state of emergency was declared in British Columbia, Canada, where a wildfire has forced the evacuation of more than 5,000 people. A separate blaze in the neighboring Northwest Territories has displaced some 22,000. 

• Musk seems determined to make X (Twitter) the least safe and least equitable social media platform. He had a few decent ideas, (along with Gov. subsidies) and he thinks that means he now has an endless supply of them. Reality has shown that he does not. 

• US Savings rate:
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• Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

 

 

 

Notes Today:

• University of West Virginia trustees are eliminating foreign languages, 20 graduate programs, and much more, going in exactly the wrong direction in our increasingly complex world.

• The crypto dude Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail for witness tampering.

• The average monthly payment for a new car in the US hit a record $736 last month - up 28% over the last 3 years. 

• New car loan rates went from 4% to 8% while used car loan rates are at 12%+. 
• The average weight of a new vehicle sold in the US last year was a whopping 4,329 pounds.
• That’s over 1,000 pounds higher than the average in 1980

• Chinese-owned Smithfield is PERMANENTLY closing 39 hog farms in Missouri. 

• The world’s largest agriculture producers are pushing back against new EU rules that require proof that crops weren’t grown on deforested land, which producers say will add to the cost of making food. 

• DeSantis’s Florida approves Climate-Denial videos in schools 

• Berkshire Hathaway is posting new all-time high. 
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• Texas Gov Abbott has installed circular saws between the Rio Grande border buoys to maim or kill anyone who attempts to climb over. Two bodies have already been found trapped in the floating barrier. (@LaikenJordahl )

• Can you run for president while in prison? Yep. 

• By analyzing how people moved while wearing virtual reality headsets, researchers said, a machine learning model accurately predicted their height, weight, age, marital status and more the majority of the time. The work exposes how artificial intelligence could be used to guess personal data, without users having to directly reveal it.

 

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

 Later

Notes Today:

• Japanese policy makers on Friday may discuss a possible tweak to the Bank of Japan’s so-called yield-curve control policy that would loosen the cap on long-dated government bond yields.

• Yen LT

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• Intel: “The magnitude of client computing growth, and how the PC market is recovering faster than anticipated,” ...
• (INTC revenue are more than twice NVDA, while NVDA has 6x its market cap)
• Intel (INTC) one minute chart.

 

Log Chart

 

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

Notes Today:

• Fed raises rates to 22-year high and leaves door open for more. However, they are no longer forecasting a recession.
• Relevant comment revisited: "Central bankers... they often don't know where they are, let alone where they are heading; their maps and compasses are unreliable, and their steering is wonky. Worst of all their recent policy dilemmas are the equivalent of not knowing whether the earth is round or flat."

The Economist September 28th, 2002 

• 30 day fed fund futures

• After Israel’s government passed a law aimed at dramatically weakening the country’s Supreme Court, Morgan Stanley downgraded Israeli sovereign debt. 

• Great news  - Aliens speak English exclusively.

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

#Sicily - literally no media outlet is covering this . The streets are on FIRE and they wont spread the news nationally . They wont send help. People call for emergency assistance and no one picks up the phone .    carmen @banditointrench · 9h 

Water temperature in South Florida reached as high as 101°F (38°C), according to preliminary data, which would set a world record if confirmed - WFLA

One of water's most significant properties is that it takes a lot of energy to heat it. Precisely, water has to absorb 4,184 Joules of heat (1 kilocalorie) for the temperature of one kilogram of water to increase 1°C

Notes Today: 

• Twitter X itself out. Killing billions in brand value.
• Twitter’s attempt to rebrand itself as “X” has drawn mockery due to its similarity to the adult video site ‘Xvideos’.  (“X” = new coke) 
• Elon Musk Soooper Genius: Twitter name is coming off the building right now but elonmusk didn’t get permit for the equipment on the street so SFPD is shutting it down. Why would this dude need a permit?
• Elon is now xeeting - I suppose.

• Wheat soars daily limit as Russia attacks Ukrainian ports, Danube warehouses. 

• The global rice market has turned precarious following India’s ban on white rice exports. It has totally become a seller’s market with prices of even cargoes in transit being hiked by $50-100 a tonne, said traders.

• bird logo available?  
  
  
  

 

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

Nearly 400,000 more people moved into than out of the most flood-prone counties in 2021 and 2022—a 103% increase from the prior two years. 

The only stock in the S&P 500 making a 52-week low.

• Long term monthly log chart.

• And Relative Strength

 

Dow Theory,  back to bullish.

 

Notes Today

•  Morgan Stanley credits Bidenomics for ‘much stronger’ than expected GDP growth.

• This is the first year Texas has ranked dead last for quality of life, along with dropping out of the top five states for business for the first time.  (Houston Chronicle)

• (FT) G20 deal on fossil fuels blocked after Saudi opposition..

• Gujarat, India got 8.9 inches of rain in 2 hours....

• Up to 30,000 (rich) people evacuated as wildfires ravage Rhodes

• An NFT of Jack Dorsey's first tweet bought for $2.9M is now valued at less than $4 - any buyers?

• We’re noticing climate change, and beginning to discuss it. It’s entering our general awareness, at last, what Jung might have called a collective consciousness.
• The 2010s and 2020s compared to the 1930s.
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• Fox News host is mad at President Biden for wearing sneakers.
• “Wearing those shoes, particularly a commander in chief in public...That’s like wearing a Speedo andflip flops to a funeral.”   (Fox busy reporting vital news..)
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Quick Overview is up to date

Notes Today:

• “He was the last person to murder two billionaires at once and have them pay for the privilege.”

• Black Sea grain deal canceled by Russia – China was the biggest recipient of Ukrainian grain.
• Russia to deem Ukrainian – bound ships potential carriers of military cargo from Wednesday eve. Reuters 
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• Russian subsidiaries of France’s Danone and Denmark’s Carlsberg have been seized under a decree by President Putin aimed at firms from “unfriendly” countries. 

• (Reuters) - Twitter's cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load. 

• In a unanimous ruling, the California supreme court said UberEats driver Erik Adolph did not give up his right under state law to sue on behalf of a large group of workers even though he signed an agreement to bring his own work-related legal claims in private arbitration. 

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Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

 

Later

Why Nasdaq Had to Kneecap the Big Six

Cutting the megacaps down to size will enable tech’s best-known benchmark to offer better diversification and regain its balance. 

Toxic chemicals were found in Indian-produced medicine that led to the deaths of dozens of children. It revealed how poorly the country’s pharmaceutical industry is policed. There was no telling how many other drugmakers were using the same counterfeit supplies.

Notes Today:

• Florida: Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida.
• More people moved out of Florida in 2021 than New York or California. 

• Corn, Soybean Conditions Improve, But “Still the Lowest for this Time of Year Since 2012”.

• Microsoft (MSFT) wins US court’s blessing for $69 billion Activision deal. 

Beyond extreme!

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

 

Notes Today:

Forbes: Elon Musk trolled Mark Zuckerberg in a pair of tweets that called the Meta CEO a “cuck” and proposed a “literal dick measuring contest."

 

•  Now George Santos is comparing himself to Rosa Parks.

• Amazonas state, home to over half of Brazil's intact forests, has nearly doubled its rate of primary forest loss in just three years," the World Resources Institute said. "Primary forest losses in this part of the Brazilian Amazon are mainly large-scale clearings -- likely for cattle pastures -- along existing highways.

 

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.

Austria’s "Century" Bonds Have Cost Investors Dearly

Sir David Attenborough to present climate change documentary.

• Last December, Sir David called climate change "humanity's greatest threat in thousands of years" at the opening ceremony of the United Nations climate change conference.
• He said it could lead to the collapse of civilisations and the extinction of "much of the natural world".
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(Credit:
@ChristophWeyant
)

Notes Today: 

• This dude is 52 years old!
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• Had to look up cuck.

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• Q39. Quick: Question about the new 15% corporate minimum tax rate.
• Buffett: The 15% tax doesn’t bother me in the least. We were paying 52% tax as federal income taxes when I bought control in the partnership of Berkshire Hathaway. The tax rate has come down dramatically. We do not think corporations are overtaxed in the U.S. We will figure out a way to pay 15% every year, which generally, we’ve been paying anyway. If there were 1000 corporations in the U.S. that paid what Berkshire has been paying, nobody else in the U.S., no individual, no corporation, would ever pay any income tax, social security tax, gift tax, estate tax, anything else. A thousand like Berkshire would produce the revenue that’s being derived under the present tax code from everybody in the U.S.

• Q24. Audience: Charlie, do you still think people who refused the Covid vaccine were “really massively stupid”?
• Munger: Yes.

From 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting: Summary Of The 48 Questions And Answers

Problem with these notes: some tend to run up against a deeply rooted feature of human cognition - the desire not to think about anything unpleasant…Sorry about that.