And to claim any trade deficit is due to other countries „cheating“ just demonstrates that either TPTB‘s thinking process is entirely corrupt, or that they are pandering to a base they assume to be stupid.
Neither is lending itself to rational investment decisions, be it in securities, or manufacturing plants.
Reality is Plan 2025 stipulates X,Y, and Z, and then there are TIG‘s own epsilon and phi. Those goals are largely mutually exclusive. So actions A, B, C, D and E that are meant to support individual goals are pursued pseudo-randomly, perhaps largely driven by which of his handlers managed to see TIG last, and what the latest economic and approval poll data show.
Do the math: 2004 - 1896 = 108
Gnats have fabulous memories!
The Captain
Ever since Darth Thiel’s ambitious young apprentice Vance suddenly became a Senator and then out of “nowhere” became Trump’s proclaimed VP pick, my largest fear has been what happens after Trump dies or “retires” (voluntarily or via Section 4 or the 25th Amendment) with mere Monarchical glory, then his “epsilon and phi” vanish, while the agenda becomes ABCDE good and hard, and then whatever the heck Thiel and Co. really want…. immortality?
That gives us investors a complicated quandary.
There’s no doubt markets have delivered over the long term. Navigating short term fluctuations is far more challenging.
How do you explain the current rebound, what’s changed? Most things that caused the Q1 tanking are still in play.
“Democracy is really crappy when the other side wins elections!”
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill
You have not noticed the changes? For example. Volodymyr Zelenskyy getting the upper hand in the failed peace talks? The bunch of countries talking tariffs? Bureaucrats getting arrested? Bombing the Houthis to Kingdom Come? Gaza? Iran? Russia’s war failing?
People have the fruitless expectation that they can find the motive for every tick in the market. I don’t. The closest I come is trying to figure out the market by looking at charts, the EKGs of the market! Lord Maynard Keynes characterized it well long before we invented the Science of Complexity, “Animal Spirits.”
The Captain
Democracy is really crappy when after winning an election democracy is dumped by the other side because of sheer ignorance.
Thank you for confirming what I said, “Democracy is really crappy when the other side wins elections!.”. 
The Captain
Agreed
For almost 250 years that was not the case.
In general the earning reports that came out this month were good. Not a lot of clarity on earnings for the rest of the year, but there you have it. 2026 is often expected to be good.
DB2
Longer that that. In the UK they used to call the other party or parties, “The Loyal Opposition.” In America now it’s, “The Devil Incarnate” which is the recipe for civil war.
It’s worth giving it some thought.
The Captain
The deep state is just lying. If they lying, there would be some respect.
It looks like the 200-day moving average has been breached.
DB2
Yep it looks very positive. Now if we can hold the low above the 200sma for 3 days we should be out of the woods.
Of course!
The Captain
Not all of them. It looks like the risk trade is on and Gold Miners are going down.
Brilliant deduction!
The only ones that matter are the ones in my portfolio
| Ticker | Pre market |
|---|---|
| LCID | +3.99% |
| PLTR | +4.11% |
| SMCI | +6.06% |
| TSLA | +8.07% |
| UPST | +7.70% |
The Captain
Just an observation since you didn’t seem to have much context.
I am happy for you
The General
Also down are big pharma stocks on price control stories.
DB2
Right, It’s surprising some of the smaller ones are not. Like TVTX. I am watching the drug stocks, there has to be a good entry on them because you know the Executive order is not going to hold up.