WendyMcElroy.com

 I've been trying to wrap my head around this one since I first heard it.
 
Synopsis of the situation:
Punchbowl News reports that "[Amazon] will soon show how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product”. A number of other outlets pick up on and start reporting about the story. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responds by calling the move a “hostile and political act,” adding that she had spoken about the matter with President Trump earlier. It's later reported that Trump has spoken to Jeff Bezos about it, and that Bezos has relented and won't be listing the breakout of tariff contributions to product prices.
 
What I’ve been debating:
To me it seems like a manufactured crisis of the moment. I ask myself, "Why would Amazon list tariff contributions per product?" ... because doing so would reveal the base price of the product they've purchased, and in so doing, would reveal their markups on those products (which would probably raise more ire from their customers than would the price of the tariffs).
 
Let's say an Amazon seller orders 10,000 units of a Pink Chinese vibrator that plays "Oh Cum all Ye Faithful", for which he pays the Chinese manufacturer $2 per unit. He then turns around and sells each vibrator on Amazon for $19.99. Current tariffs on Chinese goods are 145%, which would add $2.90 to the $2 price the Amazon seller pays. The seller decides not to absorb any of the tariff, and raises the Amazon price to the consumer by $2.90 to $22.89 to cover that tariff. The tariff listing on the product is shown as $2.90. Does the seller really want customers to realize that said seller is charging consumers ten times their cost for this cheap climax inducer? No, absolutely not!
 
Given this, I don't think that Amazon ever had any intention of listing the tariff contributions to the products they sell. So I'm left wondering what all of this political song and dance was all about. The best my girlfriend can cum up with (being in possession of one of said units) is that it was to make it look like Amazon backed down to the "tough guys" in the Trump administration.

WTH is Rearden? I’m about ready to book a search party in Tampa Bay to go out looking for our favorite Trump supporter. Is it the fact that Trump has become a more fervent supporter of tariffs than even Lincoln? What's driven him to disappear?

Quote from: Bitjuggler on April 11, 2025, 11:52:45 AM

But the other reason for Trump caving makes more sense - the overnight T-Bill market collapsed.

I need to pay more attention to this.

Yeah, the bond market recovered a bit after the 90-day tariff suspension; but then it continued its slide on Friday.

The upheaval in stocks has been grabbing all the headlines, but there is a bigger problem looming in another corner of the financial markets that rarely gets headlines: Investors are dumping U.S. government bonds.
 
Normally, investors rush into Treasurys at a whiff of economic chaos but now they are selling them as not even the lure of higher interest payments on the bonds is getting them to buy. The freak development has experts worried that big banks, funds and traders are losing faith in America as a stable, predictable, good place to store their money.
 
“The fear is the U.S. is losing its standing as the safe haven,” said George Cipolloni, a fund manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management. “Our bond market is the biggest and most stable in the world, but when you add instability, bad things can happen.”
 
That could be bad news for taxpayers paying interest on the ballooning U.S. debt, consumers taking out mortgages or car loans — and for President Donald Trump, who had hoped his tariff pause earlier this week would restore confidence in the markets.
...
A week ago, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was 4.01%. On Friday, the yield shot as high as 4.58% before sliding back to around 4.50%. That’s a major swing for the bond market, which measures moves by the hundredths of a percentage point.
 
Among the possible knock-on effects is a big hit to ordinary Americans in the form of higher interest rates on mortgages and car financing and other loans.
 
“As yields move higher, you’ll see your borrowing rates move higher, too,” said Brian Rehling, head of fixed income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “And every corporation uses these funding markets. If they get more expensive, they’re going to have to pass along those costs customers or cut costs by cutting jobs.”

I kind of followed Warren Buffet’s lead. He!s got about 29% of his portfolio in cash instruments. So I pulled out about a third of my equities and put it into cash. Since then, the non-cash has dropped by 16%; so I regret not moving more.

The thing is, it’s one man who’s had this negative impact. It’s because Congress granted the President the power to do what he’s done. But I suspect Congress will never pull those powers (and others) back.

I was thinking market manipulation long before Adam Schiff came out with it. But the other reason for Trump caving makes more sense - the overnight T-Bill market collapsed. I still don’t doubt some insider information had spread though.

I hope it all settles down and recovers before I have to start taking RMD’s when I turn 73.

Seen on Reddit

Biden wiped out my student debt; Trump wiped out my 401K

Darth Vader Accidentally Adds Admiral Ackbar To Holochat Planning Alderaan Bombing
 

MUSTAFAR — The Galactic Empire was forced into damage control mode this week after it was revealed that Darth Vader had realized that he had mistakenly added Rebel Alliance leader Admiral Ackbar to a holochat about planning the Alderaan bombing.
 
The gaffe was discovered over the weekend when anonymous sources told Holonet News that Rebel forces had become aware of details surrounding the bombing of Alderaan, with the intelligence being traced back to a group holochat belonging to Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and other Imperial officials. The Dark Lord of the Sith gave an official statement about the incident.
 
"One of the rebels was unintentionally included in a private holochat," Vader said. "It was one of their high-ranking officers. The lobster-looking one with the weird fish eyes. We should've noticed. Anyway, we were discussing an Imperial operation, but no ‘war plans' were discussed, and no classified materials were sent on the channel. I don't know who let the crustacean rebel into the chat, but when they are identified, I will deal with them myself. Also, any reports about us discussing placing bets on next week's podraces are completely false."
 
Outspoken critics of the Empire pointed to the incident as yet another example of incompetence. "How are they supposed to keep us all safe if they can't even keep their high-level communications secure?" asked concerned Imperial citizen Jax Mordan. "If the Emperor and Lord Vader aren't careful about who is included in private holochats, then it's only a matter of time before their irresponsibility ends up — ERRCK!"
 
At publishing time, it had been reported that Jax Mordan and his disturbing insolence had been "dealt with" by Darth Vader.

 The Earth Is Warmer Today Than ...

• ... it's ever been
• ... at any time since the start of the Quaternary Ice Age (~2.5 million years ago)
• ... at any time since the dawn of Homosapien (around 300,000 years ago)
• ... at any time since the start of the last glacial period (what some people would call the last ice age) some 100,000 years ago
• ... at any time in recorded human history (about 5,000 years ago)
• ... at any time since the start of the Little Ice Age (~1300's)
• ... at any time since systematic global temperature records started in 1880

I've heard every one of those; and have even given some credence to #4, #5, #6, and #7. But I think a recent story on my morning MSN newsfeed relegates #4 to the dustbin of failed proxy temperatures. The story has also appeared in the New Scientist, the Smithsonian, and Newsweek.
 
Here's the synopsis. There's an ancient ice/snow-field on Beartooth Plateau in Wyoming that is melting (due of course to global climate change). The melting has exposed Whitebark Pine tree trunks and limbs which have been carbon dated to about 5,900 years ago. Here's the interesting perspective though: the trees were discovered at an altitude of 10,170 feet ASL, which is 590 feet above the current timberline. The Newsweek article is the one I have the greatest appreciation for. It has a 40 second video taken by a drone over the ice field - and it shows that the tree trunks and limbs are colocated with rocks and boulders which appear to be a glacial moraine. So it's probable that the tree trunks and limbs originated from even higher up the plateau and were carried to where they are now by a small glacier (of which the melting ice sheet is the final remnant).
 
So what's the significance of all this? The greatest influence on the timberline is the atmospheric temperature. The temperature at the timerline needs to be sufficient to support the growth of the trees. Since the trees were discovered at least 590 feet above the current timberline, it would tend to indicate that the temperature 5,900 years ago was greater than it is today.
 
So, 5,900 years ago:
- was there a falloff in the population of polar bears?
- did the coral population take a hit?
- and whatever other "the sky is falling" predictions that are currently being forecast because of rising temperatures.

 
I'm just wondering how many are left in politics ... or in the general population for that matter. Maybe it's simply that the unhinged extremes of political thought get all the press - it's what sells airtime and column inches.
 
The thing that brought this thought on was John Fetterman's Xeet in response to the Democrat's antics at the Joint Session appearance of Trump:

A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance.
 
It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained.
 
We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message.

After reading that Xeet, I realized that the "metaphorical car alarm" phrase applies to so many things on the political front that everything in the political news cycles ends up being categorized into it. Anthropogenic Climate Change was the first such subject that popped into my mind - and it's difficult to take it as anything other than an errant car alarm when the activists and climate conference attendees use private jets to attend their events. And no, Republicans don't get a pass on this either ... witness, They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats (YouTube 1:47). It also applies when either party tries to extend the debt ceiling, or come to an agreement to come up with a continuing resolution to keep the government running. It just gets really difficult to take any of it seriously.