Is that the average 4chaner?

If Putin’s tables are anything to go by, those Russian couches must be nice and curvy in JD’s eyes.

TIL Epson made laptops. Having had to deal with some of their printers and scanners, I’m not inclined to learn more.

All that big talk about forcing countries to negotiate

Trump indeed touts tariffs as international leverage, but they’re just as much if not more of a domestic power play that forces US businesses to kiss the ring in order to get exemptions. Businesses that pledge allegiance keep their supply chains and survive, whereas those that don’t satisfy the Mango get to pay tariffs and compete with exempted businesses in a weakening consumer market with decreasing purchasing power.

World’s reserve currency. When it inevitably switches to the yuan

That’s neither inevitable nor likely at this point. China’s capital controls, ongoing devaluation of its currency and demonstrated willingness to prioritize the state over investors –at least some of which are positive things I wish we had– make Chinese assets in general and the renminbi in particular not investible to the degree necessary to achieve reserve status. The euro has better chances for now, especially if European debt is unified and becomes more liquid.

I think this is unironically what they are going for everywhere: delegating regulation to industry, as is the case to some extent in aviation. If they get their way, they won’t need approval from the NHTSA or any other agency, because they will self-approve and likely even shape regulation themselves.

Not to speak of options. With how high volatility got, writing puts must have made bank, and, despite that high volatility, buying calls must have too.

On the one hand, I share your doubt, which is justified in the face of all the deceit and mismanagement that Merz in particular and the CDU and CSU in general engage in and their disdain for the public good. On the other hand, the fact that the Sovereign Tech Fund / Agency survived the German budget crisis gives me some hope that it will at least stay.

Although they could do more, I wouldn’t say they don’t care. For instance, Germany established the Sovereign Tech Agency.

This is due to a few people in power, not because of tsunamis etc. So this can switch over in just a day.

In my view, the damage is very real and businesses will keep suffering even if Trump winds down his tariff ambitions, because the uncertainty and unpredictability hinder investment decisions. For example, if you managed an aluminium business like Alcoa, would you put up the cash to set up new smelters in the US despite melting stock prices, high borrowing costs and the possibility that the tariffs shielding those US smelters from foreign producers are reduced or even scrapped altogether without warning? Many businesses are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”.

I’m sure there are smart plays in this market, but I’m also convinced that we’ve entered a bear phase.

I searched for German articles about this, but found none. However, the three parties expected to form the next government –the SPD, the CDU and its Bavarian sibling, the CSU– are considering to weaponize migration background against “sponsors of terror, antisemites and extremists”, which could be construed to include some peaceful critics of the Israeli government and military and their actions and plans.

Thank you for sharing that — especially with it being personal information. Like your husband, I moved to Germany and cannot check my vaccination history — at least not easily, being estranged from my relatives. Coming from Spain and having been born in the late 90s, I very likely received all the usual vaccines. Still, I’ve been wondering what I could do about this for years. I will ask my Hausärztin sometime.

As good as that would be and as much as I desire it, my impression is that too many of them are trapped in a disinformation bubble to realize what and who is actually causing their problems. Some might, like the former Republican who shot at Trump and the veteran who blew up a Cybertruck, if I understood their motivation correctly, but I doubt such incidents will ever reach such a scale that Republicans reverse their entrenched stance on gun ownership.

I think Trumpism does not need to take away guns thanks to the correlation between Trumpism and gun ownership. Why would they disarm those who support them and carry out their wishes with a degree of plausible deniability, as in January 6th?

To my knowledge, intelligence gathering is one of the capabilities for which Ukraine and, indeed, all non-US members of NATO depend on the United States the most, and one which they can less readily ramp up than the production of military hardware and materiel. This latest move is, perhaps, an even bigger blow to a fair and durable peace than the recent suspension of US military aid.