Tag Archives: economy

July 28, 2025 · 22:07

On the cheap

That is at times a worry, when things go on the cheap it tends to be the more expensive setting you are driven to select. But as I see it, it isn’t always bad. Abu Dhabi (capital of United Arab Emirates) have a few options here. So to show this lets take the ‘normal’ setting.

Warner Brothers Theme park $129
WaterWorld $123
Sea World $177
Ferrari Them park $144
Yas Mall Free

You would think that this will be the master of all bills, but you would be wrong. You see when you get into the Warner Brothers hotel you automatically get a ticket EVERY DAY to one of the theme parks for that day. There are more hotels on Yas Island that give that option. In case of the Warner Brothers hotel, its theme park is across the street (WaterWorld is its neighbour). Oh, and enjoy breakfast there is to be cherished. Don’t take my word for this, YouTube is filled with walkthrough videos of the Hotel and the Theme parks, see for yourself what you could be enjoying.

There is however more. Tourists have the option of buying a 4 Park Ticket for a mere $184 which allows you to visit any of the Yas Island theme parks within 6 days of activating your pass. You have to consider this setting as this implies hundreds of dollars saved per person and you get to select which park you will select. You could spend 4 days in the same park. To give you a comparison a Universal theme park ticket will set you back $600 and that is also per person. So that implies a saving of an easy $400, so what would you select? The added benefit is that the UAE is a zero tax country, so there is a decent reason to visit the Apple Store in Yas Mall and get yourself the apple extension you always wanted. 

So as America is setting the additional $250 visa cost, as such Abu Dhabi becomes the premiere location for people wanting the theme park experience. The news (up to recent) was that America is getting a $29,000,000,000 pain invoice from lost international tourists and as I was looking at the presented data from several sources pretty much anywhere, I reckon that by late September, the presented damage will be worse, much worse. 

So, why am I focussing on Abu Dhabi? Well, the theme parks are advertised by people who were there as top notch and when you consider the setting that the Diamond pass is annually AED 3,295 ($900) for a whole year with additional discounts all over Yas Island. A full year of access for $900? It is worth retiring there and cool down and soak twice a week in WaterWorld. Nearly all theme parks are indoors in air-conditioned settings and as I see it, next year we get the Harry Potter expansion and the year after that Disney will grace that setting too. In addition (at present) you also get a Unlimited Quick Pass Access, also there is the 25% discount on Dining (at places that support this and also the 25% Discount on Shopping and several other benefits. That implies that the price of the pass will be earned back in just over a week, as such you have 50 weeks of true profit. So what retirement setting offers that? The universal annual pass is seemingly set to $1,095 before taxes. As such Abu Dhabi is seemingly giving you a blast for your bucks. 

As I see it, Universal has blacked out dates, Abu Dhabi gives you 365 days of fun. Seems like the optimal saving.

So what is behind this? I am not paid by Miral Experiences (the operator on Yas Island), there is nothing in it for me. But this shows you the utter stupidity of the Trump administration adding a new $250 ‘visa integrity fee’ and when you consider that in 2023, Florida’s theme parks welcomed close to 77 million visitors, merely one state, so when you consider that a massive part of International tourists now have an alternative and a much bigger resentment of America, that are merely two of a bigger set of anti-America setting. Together with decreased rights of privacy at the border. To be clear, I am not anti America, I am merely anti-stupid and at present America is no longer worth it. This is beside America trying to push the 51st State into the face of Mark Carney (Prime Minister of Canada) and his 40,100,000 Canadian brothers and sisters. As such America is getting massive doses of hardship. So when Florida and California loses millions of tourists, what do you think will happen. I see the adjusted ‘videos’ that it will not get back to normal until 2026. Well, that time has gone. As I see it, as there are alternatives America will see this hardship in 2026, 2027 and 2028. There might be some revival in 2028, yet I doubt it, as America sees hardship beyond 2026, crime numbers will accelerate and the quality of life in America is unlikely to see any bright spots before 2029. And that is if America stops being stupid tomorrow morning before 03:00. After that the setting becomes near disastrous and that is merely the summer, at this point their winter seasons are not looking too great either. Winter is a different chicken, most ski and boarding fanatics have their slopes and that’s fine, but at present as places lose control over staff, infrastructures almost everywhere will be near collapse and without infrastructure the tourists will become absent. As a source gave me “Tourists, particularly from Australia and Canada, are increasingly rebooking or cancelling trips away from America due to concerns about border security, perceived political tensions, and a general sentiment of unease, leading to a significant drop in visitors to the US and a surge in interest for alternative destinations like Europe and Bermuda.” As such the setting for America looks grim, very grim. 

In an age and a stage of seeing the cheap route thee is a massive setting of people who will be resetting their vacation to the UAE and Abu Dhabi with Dubai a mere 35 minutes away per train. And when you consider that a 30-day tourist visa fee: AED 200 ($54). A 60-day tourist visa fee: AED 300 ($81), seems a lot less than the ‘added’ $250. So how was their ‘visa integrity fee’ a good idea? If my initial understanding is correct and America is utterly broke, then America stops being the place to go until far beyond 2030, but in the meantime the UAE and Saudi Arabia become places to go to. And that is not all, there is every chance that Europeans will return to places like Acorn Adventure (UK), as I see it, there are several places in Europe who will see a returning tourist option. 

For me there is this dish which I enjoyed in Ghent in the 11th century (before embarking on the Crusades) and that was possible as the Medieval times are set in the Archeon. They also have a Roman age (complete with gladiator arena and bathing house) and a prehistoric area. 

And the Netherlands has more. The Efteling, a theme park that won the biggest theme park award at least twice, making it the biggest contender for Disney parks. And it has its own charm. All places that will feel increased attention as America is slowly strangling its influx of tourists to death.

As such America is due a massive downturn, they forgot that they are not all powerful and other nations have alternatives to what they offer and as they are now raising prices by at least $250 the stage changes. Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, France, London (UK), Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia are all in the running of welcoming the tourists who are now over the American BS (that stuff that makes grass grow in Texas). As I see it, $29 billion was a understated and that will go on for at least 3 years. With border controls impeding out privacy, the setting for business tourists will go down more and more as well. But not to fret, Canada has a welcoming position for these business vendors as well,  a visitor visa (single or multiple entry) costs CAD 100 ($72) per person, also a lot less than $250 and that setting will continue for some time. 

It is a shame for some, but if America prices itself out of the running, the impact is on themselves. Have a great day and feel free to dream yourself into the past with pastries, I am still dreaming of Dutch poffertjes. And I have an art work by Anton Pieck to assist me in this matter. 

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July 17, 2025 · 22:43

A powerhouse South of Davos

Yup, it seems like a founding setting as July usually is in the setting of Davos in the desert and the setting is ‘embossed’ as we are given by Arab News as ‘Riyadh emerging as global super hub amid economic boom: Knight Frank’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2608260/business-economy) this is a super setting for several players but not in a good way. 

We are given “Saudi Arabia’s capital is rapidly transforming into a leading global wealth hub, fueled by the Kingdom’s successful economic diversification under Vision 2030, a recent Knight Frank report said. The Riyadh edition of the “Emerging Wealth Hub” series noted that the Saudi capital is transitioning from an oil-dependent economy to a powerhouse for finance, culture, and lifestyle, attracting multinational corporations, investors, and expatriates.” You see, the setting is a little more complicated than that. This is shown through the paragraph that follows “A key driver has been the Regional Headquarters Program, which has already exceeded its 2030 target, with 600 global firms, including Bechtel, PwC, and Northern Trust, setting up regional bases in Riyadh. 

This influx has pushed Grade-A office vacancy rates down to just 2 percent, while prime office rents have skyrocketed by 23 percent in the past year and 84 percent since 2020.” 

When we see the dots, there is a danger that we link the dots in the wrong direction, so we can see that there are 4 dots with at least 2 options, and the more dots we have, the clearer the image becomes. But at present we see that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are rising stars in money matters and rising economy stars, also rising stars in tourism, employments and technology. In the other corner there are the parties of America, the EU and the Commonwealth to a lesser degree. The massive inclination is that America cannot remain the nice party towards both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, then there is the UAE connection to BRICS and as they both are rocking the tourism industry, a setting where they are making the dozens of billions that America is losing. A second setting is that they have the cash to make the technology work, all whilst America is allegedly having power issues, issues that this technology cannot survive, as such the upside is clear for the Arabic worlds a little less for the other players. Some players are vying for the same defence contracts as America, as such we are all facing some version of what some might see as a civil war in the ranks. And as I personally see it, America will be pulling more and more drastic settings and it is one of the reasons that the Trump administration ‘requires’ Powell needs to be shown the door. It is a mere speculation on my side, but there is a chance that America becomes more and more desperate as the tariff setting was backfiring and it seems to be the leading cause for American tourism going back towards the stone age. The thing that also rings in my head is the setting that the millionaires and billionaires that are now investing and seeing the lucrative stages that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are ‘promising’ are all founding mergers that are now not investing and seeking these options in America. As such these players and the tourism setting where people can only spend their money once, they are now vacating to other shores. These are not connected issues, but they do become accumulative issues towards the American shores. As I see it, the America first movements is slowly but surely becoming the undoing of America. 

This reminds me of a Latin expression “Post hoc ergo propter hoc” meaning “after this, therefore because of this” it is an expression that dates back to ancient Greece where it was ‘accepted’ as a truth, but correlation does not equal causation. Apparently the Romans figured this out and as such I gave the example with four points. But the setting where the non-connected events can show that it does have a negative side towards other shores and as such we see the setting towards America. One can believe or debunk the setting that in economy, the entrepreneurial mind can only spend money once, and in a separate turn ‘we the people’ can for the most merely afford one holiday a year and that was in previous years a 20 billion dollars solely from Canadians towards America. But that milk was soured by an administration with State 51 on their mind, a setting that Canadians no longer accept, it made them reject America as a destination. Moreover, other events were also detested by others (Europeans) and as such they are also going to other places, not all, but enough to America seeing this as a massive problem. Only 10 hours ago we were given that Canadian tourism to America is now down 33% in June. In an age where tourism is banking on a near 90% full setting, Canada alone is giving America a tourism body blow and that is before the European sources are considered. So in an age where the financial situation is dire to say the least, the loss of billion will be a hardship station for the near entire industry. So, whilst some are looking towards Davos in the desert, that setting might show the new stations we see as the Future Investment Initiative (FII), which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from October 29-31, 2025. Some will see a setting that shows for the first time just how desperate the sewing for America and Europe might be. I believe it the news will be bad (for the west), you see, over the last 5 years I have been trying to keep eyes on the Saudi Broadcast Authority (SBA) as I expected them to reach out towards Egypt and Europe, but the news has gone silent the last year. It is my believe that the world will hear news in these directions in October. It is highly speculative (on my side), but I believe that is what will happen this year. I personally believe that this is the ‘surprise’ Saudi Arabia and Huawei is getting ready for, but I have absolutely no evidence on this. So call it what you will but these elements together will show a new dot setting and we will hear it in Q4 this year. 

No matter what we will hear, it doesn’t frame well for the America First pamphlets and photo frames. But I will be the first adjusting my ‘wrongly’ seen connected dots. Because I honestly don’t know. It is more of a gut feeling towards the image that others seem to be showing us.

Have a great day.

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July 8, 2025 · 11:48

O square B square

Yup, sounds like a conundrum but it isn’t one. It is rather simple. The BBC alerted me to this this morning around 3 o’clock clock in the morning. It refers to OOBB, or Out Of Breath Bully, or in simple terms ‘Trump threatens extra 10% tariff on nations siding with Brics’. You see, the setting becomes “the original group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.” So how did I get to this? Simple, Indonesia has 260,000,000 people (say consumers). People as is now seemingly lost to America and as such they will cater to the EU and Arabic nations (which coincidentally happens to appease my IP as well and hopefully the Kingdom Holding), Iran was never siding with America, but the other two, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)? Will America suddenly find loopholes to avoid these two? I reckon that if I can humbly suggest to ADNOC and Aramco that they set aside 500,000 barrels of oil per day from America towards China and as such I am humbly requesting a mere 1% of the additional profit by this charter change, or 5% of the additional profits should America pay for the additional ‘hardship’. I reckon that I might score $0.20 per barrel and that amounts to $1 million from either delivery channels per day, that is $2,000,000 per day towards the retirement fund for little old me, as such my dream retirement becomes a reality (living on Yas Island in a nice apartment) and a few additional perks. And there is reason to do this. Someone needs to explain to the White House individual that threats are nice, but at some point people will take genuine offense. As I see it China has already had enough and the new adversaries namely Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE pretty much has had enough of that too. They laugh now, but the world is seeing the threats of America to be a hindrance of doing global business. So as this escalates they all have a new trading partner in Canada, as well as Australia ands the United Kingdom. China and the Arabic nations will be delighted to get a 100,000,000 consumers who will turn away from America to a much larger degree and Canada gets two additional depositories for Canadian alcohol. 

Could I be wrong?
Absolutely, and that is fine, but to get an option to $2 million per day is something we should never ignore. Even if it starts being a simple courier for Aramco (they apparently have offices in Sydney), as such I could start tomorrow if at all possible. 

The setting of ‘on nations siding with Brics’ was just plain stupid and stupidity should never be rewarded. So as we take notice of “US President Donald Trump has warned that countries which side with the policies of the Brics alliance that go against US interests will be hit with an extra 10% tariff. “Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote on social media.” shows two settings. The first is that this social media call was shortsighted to say the least and the second part is that this implies (yet again) that is facing a lot more economic hardship then it is ready to admit to and getting that out is a victory all by itself as the bulk of the western media is in denial of this and I saw this months ago, actually, I saw this on October 4th 2021 (world animal day no less) in my story ‘Utter Insanity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/10/04/utter-insanity/) no less. It was (as I personally saw it) the moment the US debt passed the point of no return. All these pretenders with settings like “Next year will be better” and “They are doing really good, I saw the plans”, the second setting reminded me of crazy Star Trek fans, who claimed that NASA was testing teleportation in secret (I am, after two decades, still laughing on that setting). And the bluffing ‘no exception’ is the candle and icing on the cake). 

So, see this for what it is but America has at present a debt surpassing $37 trillion ($37,000,000,000,000), as such they accumulated an additional 12 trillion in just 4 years. So, when the banks no longer go with the ‘we are too big to go bankrupt’ what will you have? What will you do? Because when the banks shut down America loses whatever social safeties and social security they think they still have. It was a simple setting and you could have gotten there if someone explained the working of the Abacus. A calculator that was invented a mere 4400 years ago. So whilst the article also gives us “Last week, Trump said Japan could face a “30% or 35%” tariff if the country failed to reach a deal with the US by Wednesday.” All kinds of threats we see, but acting on these threats implies that America is willing to burn the bridges it has and now that three new players enter the scene, the setting changes. Does the world need America? Canada and the rest of the Commonwealth doubt this, now that the Arabic countries are added to the masses, more will doubt that setting. So whilst America implodes through the threats they are voicing, the UK needs to find a way to get back to the majority of the Commonwealth as the rest unites with Canada. Now that America is opening a new battle ground with the BRICS nations (in all honesty, no one cares about Russia) the setting changes and America soon needs to rely on Russia and Venezuela for oil. That should be fun watching this unfold on TV. I reckon that this setting gets more viewers than the Kardashians. A simple setting that had nowhere to go from the very beginning. I know it is merely my view, but if you consider the setting and the debts and other hardships America called over itself you would see the same thing.

Consider that over the next 8 weeks as tourism in America dies, consider all the other connected services that will fail and consider then that America will need to come up with 4.06% of 37 trillion, a mere 8.3% of that due on a monthly basis and that is how America edges towards an abyss of none avoidance. That is the setting of any bully, when the invoice is due, they suddenly have people to blame and all other excuses come forth, they never fess up to the mess they clearly created. 

As I personally see it, this threat was the one he should never have made, not with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the mix. Have a great day.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, United Arab Emirates, BBC, Commonwealth, Canada, Russia, China, BRICS, Japan, EU, President Trump, Aramco, ADNOC, Indonesia, Abu Dhabi, Kingdom Holding, 

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June 30, 2025 · 10:08

The reality of the matter

That is at times a setting we hope to see, but it is only possible if you take the western media out of the picture. I have ‘debated’ this setting a few times earlier and as we discontinue considering the western media as a source we get a very different picture. To ‘support’ my view I had the microphone (or better stated the feather and ink jar, or optionally the keyboard) to AlJazeera who (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/11/fact-checking-trumps-claim-of-securing-10-trillion-in-investments-for-us) gives us ‘Fact-checking Trump’s claim of securing $10 trillion in investments for US’ there we see “The White House reports $5.1 trillion in promised investments, with $4.3 trillion newly pledged. But experts say $2.1 trillion may not fully happen.” This setting alone gives us a few ‘issues’. Is the 4.3 trillion part of the 5.1 trillion? But AlJazeera was on the ball, the give us “We tallied the White House’s public lists of investments; they amount to $2.1 trillion in corporate investments, or at most $5.1 trillion when including promised investments from other countries. Experts cautioned that the promised corporate investments are not guaranteed to materialise in full, or during Trump’s presidency, and some of them would have occurred regardless of who was president.” I am willing to ‘ignore’ the part the “some of them would have occurred regardless of who was president” and there is the setting of that sci-fi TV series that the world is investing 500B in called Stargate. But the larger setting is that either 50%, or optionally 41% may not happen, as such we wonder how long does America really have? It is an open question because I actually do not know. The hammering of tourism and small business will have an impact and it goes massively beyond the $21 billion of direct losses that is predicted.

So why bring this up?
Now we get to the real deal, with is given to us by the Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2606252/business-economy) where we see ‘Saudi FDI net inflows jump 44% in Q1 to $5.9bn’ as we consider that we are given that “foreign direct investment in the first quarter of 2025, up 44 percent year on year, driven by rising inflows and sharply lower capital outflows”, as such I wonder if the Saudi government might pull investments out of America (a massive speculation on my side) and as I would see it, based on fictive claims by the American administration. And in this I see both the lessened and diminished losses that America will have to fess up to as well as positive investments that are unlikely to come through. It is like these salespeople who made claims in the 90’s that their sales pipeline was almost ‘full’ and that pipeline was riddles with people who were unable to make up their minds, people who are awaiting confirmations of new releases and that kind of ‘issues’. So that ‘full pipeline’ was not considering close to 50% that seemed to be the issues that customers were unable to find peace with. And investors are customers. The sort to not take kindly to corporations (and administrations) not delivering on their promises. That is the setting we might not seem to get a clear view on. All this is happening whist the Guardian gives us “Annualized inflation hit 2.4% in May, up from 2.3% in April, as Trump pushes ahead with controversial trade plans”, so whilst inflation is bringing down the house (as the expression goes) we see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia getting a 44% boost of FDI in Quarter 1 2025. As such I wonder how many of the not coming through investors in America have decided to alter course and invest in Saudi Arabia. I do not pretend to know, because I do not. Yet the setting that somehow the people have ‘found’ $5.9 billion. It makes muck more logical sense that these so called investors have figured out that Saudi Arabia is a much safer fertile ground for their money trees than America is. That and the report that the UAE has reported that over 9,800 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are moving to the UAE. They both make sense and the setting that you do not put all your eggs in one basket (a rule I tend to live by) is speculatively in place. As such these people move to the UAE but put 40% in Saudi Arabia and 40% in the UAE. They are the places where money trees have a decent chance of prospering. That is what the cold data seems to imply to me. So feel free to call my insight wrong, but I feel I have to stand with that. And when you consider the impact that ADNOC has on the UAE and Aramco has on the KSA, these thoughts are likely to be a lot more correct that a journalist claiming that America is sound and safe. The data from the last 8 weeks give me a very different picture and I wrote about it. 

Now that the gloves seemingly come off in the caper between America and Canada seemingly proves me right. In one corner America has an administration that is in conflict with its own Pentagon and a few other matters (like a boasting president) and in the other corner we see Canada with PM Mark Carney who was the former Governor of the British Bank with more degrees than any thermometer has, or as I used to say ‘Marky Mark of the British Bank’, we all assign nick names for officials. My mother told me to not use bad language as such the nick name for a particular president is avoided.

The reality of the matter is that the ‘good’ setting cannot exist when we see the investment spree into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and personally I think that the investment in the KSA is the true one and both cannot exist. As such America is in a shape that is much worse than anyone is considering. I need to keep my eyes on this as I will have to adjust my views if other intelligence reaches me and I believe I need to keep you all updated on this. That is beside the point of me still trying to get the Kingdom Holding Company to buy one of my IP’s, we all have our own agenda’s and I am no different. We all have our farming plans and I am getting close to ‘mandatory’ retirement and it is a really sweet dream to retire to Yas Island enjoying 4 themes parks and a rather large mall to live out my days is relative luxury (luxury is a inherent satisfaction stage) and as there are 9800 millionaires coming to that nation there is a drive to beat them to it (preferably with a nice stack of coins).

So make of this all what you will, but two nations are showing that they have the results that matter, so where does that leave the people who hide behind the seemingly promise that America is doing fine? As such I have a lot more faith in Canada coming through this intact. 

It is the reality of the matter that is important and those stating that the reality of the matter will be that I am absolutely bug nuts is a fair call. Time will prove my views correctly. It is the benefit of a blog, it tends to be time stamped. 

Have a great day (even if it is Monday), except Canada. It is still Sunday there.

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May 25, 2025 · 00:15

When the setting fits

That is at times the thoughts we have. Now, let me be clear. This is pure speculation. It is speculation because I am not in politics (not even the shady kind) and as such it cannot be presumption. There is no best educated guess, there is merely a best guess and the setting fits several thoughts I have had in the past. It all seemingly fits. It doesn’t make it more true or more reliable. 

That is something you need to keep in mind from the start and this was all set in motion through Reuters, who gave me in the first instance (at https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-pay-25-tariff-if-phones-not-made-us-trump-says-2025-05-23/) with ‘Trump threatens new tariffs on European Union and Apple, reigniting trade fears’ and here we see “U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to ratchet up his trade war again, pushing for a 50% tariff on European Union goods starting June 1 and warning Apple he may slap a 25% levy on all imported iPhones bought by U.S. consumers. The twin threats, delivered via social media, roiled global markets after weeks of de-escalation had provided some reprieve in the tariff battle. Major U.S. stock indexes and European shares fell and the dollar weakened, while the price of gold, a safe-haven for investors, rose. U.S. Treasury yields fell on fears about tariffs’ effect on economic growth.” A few thoughts came to mind. In the first “The twin threats, delivered via social media”, as such why not in an official setting? Why via social media? Is it because the threats might get rolled back? Is it because of non-repudiation? Then we get the Apple setting, why in America? Why is this so essential? (I will get back to this later on). And a few other thoughts are to mind. Then the article ends with “The president’s attack on Apple is his latest attempt to pressure a specific company to move production to the United States, following automakers, pharmaceutical companies and chipmakers. The United States, however, does not mass-produce smartphones – even as U.S. consumers buy more than 60 million phones annually – and moving production would likely increase the cost of iPhones by hundreds of dollars” keep this latest quote on the forefront of your mind for now.

Then Reuters gives us (at https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-justice-department-reaches-deal-with-boeing-allow-planemaker-avoid-2025-05-23/) ‘US Justice Department reaches deal with Boeing to allow planemaker to avoid prosecution’ the two are actually more connected than you would think. Even as we are given “The agreement allows Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon and was harshly criticized by many families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the U.S. planemaker to trial. A lawyer for family members and two U.S. senators had urged the Justice Department not to abandon its prosecution, but the government quickly rejected the requests.”

Then last we get yet again from Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-seeks-fast-track-new-nuclear-licenses-overhaul-regulatory-agency-2025-05-23/) ‘Trump seeks to fast-track new nuclear licenses, overhaul regulatory agency’ with the subtext “U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the nation’s independent nuclear regulatory commission to cut down on regulations and fast-track new licenses for reactors and power plants, seeking to shrink a multi-year process down to 18 months.” All this sets a premise of revenue. Boeing, the reactors and last (which I gave first) was the tariffs. America is desperate for revenue and I reckon the setting of the Microsoft linked firm going bust after being evaluated for a billion dollars didn’t help his need. He needs all revenue to come from America and all made there. It isn’t merely America First, it is the speculated setting that America is about to default on its loans. Well that Is how I see it and I might be wrong. The entire setting with the added setting of Greenland and Canada is that he cannot claim that America has plenty of resources making it a lot more wealthy, for that he needed Greenland and Canada. No, now he needs to move it all to America and that is where the problem starts. Because America wasn’t ready for that move, but that is as the America administration sees it, the problem on (and for) Apple. As I see it, this is a speculated final move before the American President has to admit that payment deals need to be made and they want to push it back as far as they can as the number one fear is that others will massively dump their US Bonds and that would instantly call for the near complete dismemberment of the United States of Bankruptcy. 

Could I be wrong?
Yes, I can be wrong. But this image seems to fit the partial shorts we have been able to see. The second option is that President Trump has completely lost it, but I do not think so. Too many settings don’t fit that view of him. Yet the knee-jerk reactions to keep on being seen as an “able to make payments nation” seems to fit the bill more. I reckon that the news last week regarding that Builder.AI is now commencing insolvency proceedings was perhaps the drip that broke the camels back as the expression goes. It is before Saudi Arabia and others would be pumping money into the United States, so there is that to come as well. As they say money must flow and the actions done (especially regarding Boeing) is all about revenue, not about the family of victims. Then we loop back to January when President Trump announced ‘Trump announces a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment in the US’ here I speculate that this was all about some Microsoft setting, at least in part and now that Builder.AI has become insolvent and it was backed by Microsoft gives rise to the 500 billion being set on shaky grounds. It’s like looking at the Chrysler building seemingly coming closer to view until you realise that it was build on a quicksand. And they figure this out after the building was complete and now the top of that building is making the rest sink into the marsh. As I see it (which is presumption in this case), is as AI doesn’t exist, that they had made clever moves with DML (Deeper Machine Learning) and LLM (Large Language Models) and that requires programmers and some extended programming, but the deeper you set your teeth into the pie, the harder it is to open your mouth without coughing up the pie. And the bad decisions made with Builder.AI (I do not know what they did wrong, but that is what some media gives us, you can read that in yesterdays story).

When this goes wrong with 1 billion, what do you think that 500 billion gets you? There are only so many programmers who are adept in this form of programming and that is before all the data is validated, which if it fails makes for a totally new timeline and that is the crux of this setting. 

But feel free to ignore these settings and see what happens. That I what I think is happening. Microsoft fell short and others might not be in the market for such a failure and when the 500 billion stays away foreclosure of the land of the forsaken and the home of the arrogant falls flat. 

Here in all this I might be wrong, I admit that upfront. The question that comes to mind. What is it? Why do we get such a knee-jerk operation from left to right and from beginning to end. Now we get the news that is 15 hours old. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) gives us ‘Reserve Bank on high alert for economic fallout as Donald Trump continues to spook investors’ If I am correct than this act is merely for the ones that holds these bonds will keep on holding on to them. And the second setting is “The bond market is now regularly questioning the value and stability of US government debt.” As I see it, the nightmare scenario for President Trump. He cannot pay anything over 10% of 36 trillion. When that happens America defaults on its loans. The nightmare that Wall Street fears. As we are given “In the lead-up to the passage of the bill through the US House of Representatives, the US Treasury Department tried to secure $16 billion of funding through the sale of 20-year bonds. It found the auction harder than usual to execute due to a lack of demand from investors.” And as I see it, making the other funds ‘more’ dodgy will work for the American administration and as such are the actions that I am seeing. Not because they are great actions. It is bullying not to go somewhere else and I admit that this is merely speculation. 

I leave it up to you do decide if I am right or if I have a case for my train of thought. But this is what I see, merely because I have been looking in this direction all along. And Moody’s downgrade, US debt had become riskier for the lender. That is a simple conclusion you can all consider to get behind. But if that is the case, the outstanding bonds are a bad bet because these bonds do not get reassessed, that is the bad bet they went into and the next step we get is when Moody’s set the credit from AA1 to AA2. But what happens after? I don’t think that the holders of these bonds will wait that long. They will sell wit a loss as not to see there bonds become ‘Junk’ material and those people will lose a hell of a lot of money. Consider Japan as it is with the debts they have also have around $1.13 trillion in US bonds and China holds $784 billion. If China dumps their US bonds, Japan will be force to do the same as not to lose too much money, but the  investors were already shy of the last auction and that was only for $16,000,000,000. Now we see that there is a risk that China sets 50 times that amount up for auction as such Japan is seeing the pressure to act before it is too late as it has almost twice the amount of China and the first of these two might get some money back. The one that flinches losses it nearly all. 

How would you see such a risk? And that with the Reuters articles made me speculatively realise that America is in a lot oof hot water at present, but my view is speculative. I have no hard data to back my thoughts, be aware of that. By the way, there is a second reason for the reactors, but I’ll let you work that one out for yourselves.

Have a somewhat great day.

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May 21, 2025 · 19:28

What’s in a brand?

That is at times the question. Most of the world was to sink their claws into Saudi Arabia and we see all kinds of settings, some speculative, some going for the worst. The truth is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the rise. Not merely because they are doing well (they really are), but the massive secondary reason is that they are a no-debt zone, just as the UAE is. So as we se that America is $46 trillion in debt, the EU has a debt of 14 trillion euro and Japan has a $9 trillion debt. Yet as the Telegraph a mere three hours ago gave us all ‘‘Worse than Greece’: The debt crisis threatening to blow up the global economy’ (at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/21/trump-sparked-debt-crisis-could-blow-up-global-economy/) the truth is (speculative) that I personal believe that America is in a worse state, even as the America administration is in denial and the media is massively avoiding reporting on it. I personally think that the network of Stake holders is con spiritually involved as well. As I see it (based on the work of Cathryn van Kessel) that ‘(Con)spirituality as a curriculum of immortality’ is set to “If we are listening to marketing hype, it seems that—with enough money—we can live longer, healthier lives. These products, however, are often no more than consumerist swindling steeped in pseudo-science and pseudo-spirituality. When viewed through the lens of terror management theory (TMT), mitigating the harms of (con)spiritual grifts is more than a problem of a lack of scientific literacy, anti-consumer education, and media literacy.” My personal view is set to the premise of “mitigating the harms of (con)spiritual grifts is more than a problem of a lack of scientific literacy, anti-consumer education, and media literacy, it is a (sort of) given setting that the stakeholders are dwindling the settings of parameters and changing the premise of given values, creating confusing hype settings” This is merely a personal view, but it seemingly fits the patterns we see, or tend to recognise.

So as such we see “Because the assets that the country holds are still far more valuable than the debts. All the land, mineral rights, water, etc.” and this shows the pressures to add Greenland and Canada to America, as such they wouldn’t be considered bankrupt. Another version is “Because debt payments are still manageable” but here time is running out, as such the Trump administration is playing the bully card on Canada and Greenland. But here the dance becomes a problem as Canada is not giving in as it is part of the Commonwealth. And that is why Keir Starmer as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is being catered to by the EU as the WU is in a similar predicament and the UK ‘re-joining’ the EU, the EU ends up with a credit card that gets renewed value. But the larger truth is that time for these three are running out and as such they are courtesan themselves to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And now we see the larger setting that the article ‘Saudi brands reach $116.8 billion in value fueled by energy, banking, and telecoms sectors’ (at https://brandfinance.com/press-releases/saudi-brands-reach-116-8-billion-in-value-fuelled-by-energy-banking-and-telecoms-sectors) gives us, and the values we see are “STC (brand value up 16% to USD16.1 billion)”, it is number two. Number one is Aramco (of course) and that is oil and I didn’t want to ‘taint’ the setting. After that we get “Almarai (brand value up 20% to USD4.7 billion)” but the third one is the kicker “Saudia (brand value up 34% to USD1.1 billion)” and here is the setting of three out of the ten that these are brands that have a 16%, 20% and 34% growth, totally unheard of in western settings and as such everyone wants in. Wall Street pretty much demand these new settings, but this is not on Wall Street, as such several brands (including me) are pretty desperate to get in. And I have made a few unsuccessful moves and I will totally try to do so again and again. I told a previous boss a few years ago that they had to get there now, now the going is good. But alas, it fell on deaf ears and now as brands in the EU, US and Japan are getting desperate we will see a total new stage of in-fighting and spading their opponents. But as they diminish one another, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will get the cream of the crop at a mere 65% of the total value, because the desperate will sucker themselves to get into the game as early as possible, hoping that the going is good early in the game. I get that, I would feel the same way (as a non-captain of industry that I merely my view) and now that China is entering these fields as well, the west is desperate to get in.

And at present we see little to no evidence how three players can have a cumulative debt of $70 trillion dollars. This is $70,000,000,000,000. Did you ever consider that the debt of these three is more than all the gold in the world? How is that possible? Is it because these three have the assets, because the debt is manageable? We think that we can all be a millionaire as long as we can couch up $55,000 in interest every year, but that is a debt without an end date, you pay as long as you live and that is not a realistic setting but these governments are telling you that story with the assistance of stakeholders (who get their own revenue out of that), yet at that point we ned to consider that you are a millionaire at $55,000 plus whatever the stakeholder charges and now it get to be a little iffy (aka yucky). It is a setting that is delusional, as such they all (desperately) need to be part of the Saudi branding, yet as I see it the Saudi’s have another view, you see STC gave us in 2024 “In 2023, we expanded our global footprint even further by acquiring a 9.9% interest in Telefonica and launching TAWAL operations in three European countries. Over the past year, STC Group has focused on diversifying our global offer to connect people across countries and continents.” They gave us that in March 2024, and the sphere of influence of Saudi Arabia is expanding. So whilst by an expected 2029 we might see brand X, but it is fueling STC for a larger and larger slice of the pie. As such it will all be co-owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this is not white washing. It is merely business and these stakeholders will turn to the needs of their own paychecks more and more. 

And this is not a dream story, it is not a nightmare story. It is about to become the reality of things and as such our paychecks go in part not to Telefonica, it will go to Tawal and through that to the STC. A simple business setting and for the most the media is will not inform you, it adheres to the needs of shareholders, stake holder and advertisers. 

This is the power of branding and whilst we think that Nike, Lululemon and Jaguar are great brands, there is an underlying setting that the cool car is owned by Natarajan Chandrasekaran (chairman and Managing Director) and Saurabh Agrawal (CFO) (to some degree). And now we see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expanding in all kinds of directions. In this I kinda set that stage in ‘An altering stage’ which I wrote on October 2nd 2023. I used the word ‘kinda’ as the focus was China and I wrote “It is a summary and you should read it. It shows several elements that are taking the world by storm. It is not “As shown in the latest IMF annual review of the country’s economy, progress has been most notably reflected in non-oil growth, which has accelerated since 2021, averaging 4.8 percent in 2022. Despite lower overall growth reflecting additional oil production cuts, non-oil growth will remain close to 5 percent in 2023, spurred by strong domestic demand.” We get the goods here, but it is “The economy’s non-oil growth has been spurred by strong domestic demand, particularly private non-oil investment. Sustaining this performance requires pursuing sound macroeconomic policies and maintaining the reform momentum, irrespective of developments in oil markets.” Even if the stage is not revealed, when combined with other views we see that ‘strong domestic demand’ is merely one string from the harp of economy, the harp of Saudi economy. What matters is that larger streams involving defence, technology, construction, tourism and services are ALL moving towards Chinese shores. We see some of it now, but that list is rapidly expanding and the next US vote is 45 days away with them having to brood on a loss of billions and it will be a lot more than 1 billion.” Which was a slightly different setting than the IMF reported on and I saw that two years ago. It is the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/02/an-altering-stage/) which gives the goods, so consider that I had this at that point, so why didn’t the media see this over the last 17 months? Consider that before you lash out and wonder who you should blame. 

Too many of us are kept in the dark and you should wonder why. You see I am not an economist or some savant. Yet I know data and I have parsed data for decades, and I saw a long time ago that the numbers didn’t add up. So wonder how the media could have missed it all. You were merely given slithers of data and until you consider the larger picture (which the bulk of the media will not give you) wonder why and it is not that it was to complex. As I personally consider the setting is that stake holders are part of the deception. Their cheques are too fat, so they like this game how it is played and they have been playing it for years. 

Have a great day and remember, don’t trust all you read, verify the data you are given, even my data. I am not telling you to trust my data. If anything I am a little like Fox Mulder (from the X-Files) and trust no one, not even me. 

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May 9, 2025 · 11:54

The end of defense

That is the setting that SBS (at https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australias-big-question-in-donald-trumps-movie-tariff-threat/apjiwwsr0) invites us to consider. You see, in the eyes of the ‘true blue’ democrats, the message becomes You cannot set the stage to an orange overtly bully baboon and perhaps they actually had the right notion. At some point it is pointless to merely play the defensive stage. In Pencak Silat I learned decades ago that defense without offense if pointless and offense without defense is useless. So it is time to up the game. No matter how stupid the actions of President Trump are seen, the game needs a boost and he gave us the perfect reason. And as ‘their’ presentations give us, California is at present the richest area. As such the link gives us ‘Australia’s $767 million question in Donald Trump’s movie tariff threat’ there is an upside and a downside. You see, the Commonwealth might see this as an opportunity, consider the Australian acting community (Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne and many more), the Canadian (Ryan Reynolds, Nathan Fillion, Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley) and many more and last but not least the United Kingdom (Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Kate Winslet, Emma Thomson) and many many more, Agree that they will no longer work in American productions. They will seed the field for each others areas. So how long until the investors back away from America and Hollywood? How long until DC, Marvel and other franchises build their own studios (likely in Canada) outside of the US? 

It isn’t fair on these people, my view is that they made with one film more than most people will ever make in their life. (I should know as I hoped that Matt Damon would pay me $3,000,000 post taxation for one of my scripts and I have always prided myself of being a fair return on investment). Still it is not really fair on them, but it is an offensive move and it is one I just came up with. I reckon that Canada and Australia have the ability to mirror the English setting and create two distinct area of expertise. If America gets desperate they could always fund the Nigerian movie industry who is almost dying to expand. 

At this time (if enough people agree) America will get the White House under control with their desperate tariff settings. Consider that this President has shown to be a dictionary of two words (golf and tariff), as such I believe the time has come to start becoming proactive, this defensive actions to knee jerk reactions from Washington is upsetting the balance of established settings. The world is in too much trouble. At times this seems to be set to a old  premise that a comedian gave us (I forgot his name). “Lets put all the extremists in one room, the extreme right and the extreme left and let them expire each other”, it is slightly radical but in this day and age it might just work. 

So consider “This week, Trump announced he would be pursuing a 100 per cent tariff on all movies “produced in foreign lands”” next, consider that the bulk of the American movies get over 50%, sometimes as much as 70% from foreign lands. So should that be lessened by these tariffs? It is easy to think that it is all America, but that isn’t true. When all these non-American movie theaters pull their American settings, California becomes less in income than most other states and they still have the producing costs coming their way. In that time Canada and Australia grow their business and grow with aid from the UK. Then consider all the movies based on non-American scripts and novels. The setting enhances against America. A setting I saw within 600 seconds, so why aren’t the game play makers in politics? 

Is my plan flawless? Never a lessened truth was that obvious, there are flaws which starts with the national movie industry, but it might be a first step in getting President Trump of all our backs and that is never a bad thing.

So as we seemingly embrace ““The movie industry in America is dying a very fast death. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform over the weekend.” Is that our fault, or is that the fault of free driven wannabe’s in Movieland? I seemingly might be one of them with my script (and 3 more on the road to completion, which is a story for another day). Consider that at present is set to “The number of movie scripts registered annually varies, but a rough estimate is around 50,000 screenplays registered with the Writer’s Guild of America each year.” All whilst a mere 350 make it to the screen. So is this a numbers game, or is it a quality game? 50,000 scripts implies 136 scripts a day are pushed to some producer pool and they are tired, going for amounts, not for quality. All hoping for a next dime, but there is always a snag hitting up and they wonder why America’s movie industry is dying? I reckon that Netflix, Disney plus, and others aided in that impeding death.

It is time to up the ante and nationalizing our acting guilds, movie producing guild and studio guild might be the way to go go about this (might is the operative word) but the tariff game is over, apart from the small fact that America might be already too broke to consider another matter. Oh, and I never took the Korean or Japanese market in consideration, so the problem is worse for America. As I see it, the offensive game might become the way to go, even if it is the only way to consider that whomever gets into the White House has a much larger vocabulary and ‘tariff’ is not one of them words. 

So feel free to disagree, but consider the setting the UK market has had for decades, Canada and Australia has shown to grow it in the last few decades and consider the stars you revere, are they all American? 

Have a nice day, a great one if possible and reconsider the setting you are confronted with, what is the actual solution? I am not sure what is.

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May 6, 2025 · 02:05

Repeating the same mistake

That happens, it happens to me too. As I’m decently convinced of something I will repeat that thought. Actually it might be the wrong idea, but you get the point. As such I saw over the last 24 hours several articles. 

The first is given to us by Time, (at https://time.com/7282450/trump-annex-canada-economy-recession-upholding-the-constitution/) we are given ‘Trump Speaks Out on His Desire to Annex Canada, Recession Concerns, and If He Has to Uphold the Constitution’ In this article we get “The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House have been dominated by talks of Executive Orders, tariffs, foreign relations and economic stability in light of the trade war sparked by the tariffs, comments about annexing Canada, the possibility of seeking a third term, and much more.” Followed by “Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose Liberal Party won the Canadian election on April 28, has—much like his predecessor Justin Trudeau—made it clear that Canada has no intention of taking Trump up on his offer. “It will never happen,” he said. In this latest interview, Trump said he had congratulated Carney on his election win, but doubled down on his desire to make Canada the 51st state, saying he will “always talk about that.” Trump repeated his previous sentiments, referring once more to Canada’s former Prime Minister as “Governor Trudeau.””. As I see it, the southern folks might as well call these southerners “The United States of Canada” soon enough (my reason follow far below). His reasoning is ““If Canada was a state it wouldn’t cost us. It would be great. It would be such a great—it would be a cherished state. And, if you look at our map, if you look at the geography, I’m a real estate guy at heart. When I look down at that without that artificial line that was drawn with a ruler many years ago… You don’t even realize. What a beautiful country it would be,” he said. “Again, remember this, we don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything. We do very little business with Canada. They do all of their business practically with us. They need us. We don’t need them.”” As I see it, the first deception, more to follow in the near future and that deception is given through “They need us. We don’t need them”. Then we get to the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/04/trump-greenland-denmark-military-force) where we are given ‘Trump says he ‘doesn’t rule out’ using military force to control Greenland’, so what kind of a yahoo dictator reverts to force to attack its allies? And these two have been given the stage that their resources are up for grabs and America needs them. The same for Canada. A setting that is concerning as this is the likely first setting that they need us (Greenland and Canada) a lot more than they need him. So as again deception rules, we are left with “Donald Trump would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland, the world’s largest island and an autonomous territory within Denmark, a fellow Nato member with the US.” America never needed it for the longest of time, but America is on the outer limits of bankrupt and it needs their resources to survive. So as such the ‘promise’ of “It would be great. It would be such a great—it would be a cherished state” is like a crack whore begging for anything to get that ‘cherished’ high. That is how I see it. The biting effect of 36 trillion debt, for America at 4.5% it comes down to 1.62 trillion dollars (aka 1,620,000,000,000) EVERY YEAR and that is how it bites. During fiscal year 2024, the IRS collected more than $5.1 trillion in tax revenue, that implies that 31.76% is lost of that revenue is lost on interest alone and it gets worse, because (as the US Treasury gives us) “Compared to the national deficit of $1.06 trillion for the same period last year (Oct 2023 – Mar 2024), our national deficit has increased by $242 billion.” And the funny part was that on the occasion of World Animal day 2021 I gave “In 2013 the US debt was $17,000,000,000,000 (17 trillion), and over 8 years 8 trillion was added, a nice $8,000,000,000,000. This implies that the US government overspends a trillion a year with no exit strategy on how to cope with the debt and it is on both Republicans and Democrats.” I saw this moment come to mind over three years ago and over this time, of three years, the debt doubled. So how is that for foresight? I did so (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/10/04/utter-insanity/) in the blog article ‘Utter Insanity’ I saw that clearly ahead of it all and due to American politicians sitting on their hand it is now too late and I made notice of this before 2021 as well. Reuters might give us a Met Gala and how things are bolder, but it still needs people with incomes to afford it all and that is about to end and President Trump doesn’t want to be the president having to inform the people that it is about to end, as such we will get The United States of Canada with (at this time) Prime minister of the Americas to become the biggest president the world has ever seen. As such I opt that he will unite several states as one with in the east called the Cockcoeske collective (honouring the Rappahannock Tribe of the 1600’s) named after the first female chief following her father Chief Captain Chawanta Nelson) this would unite the states of Virginia and all the states to the North of that. I know it is a little mean but America was stupid and mean to elect Donald Trump as such, so they don’t get a choice in the matter. And it makes sense, to elect this, they will need the upheaval and as such one third of the boards of any new states in America will consist of Native Americans and in the settings that America is out of funds, other measures will have to be taken, with a damper on spending, military spending is a first and most remaining spending will go on infrastructures and soup kitchens because as I see it, when the defaults start pretty much all retirement funds go belly up. Wanna doubt me? That is fair, but show me a non-violent and non invasive solution. I bet you can’t do that. I voiced the overhaul of the American tax system for the better part of a decade and now it is too late. Time is up and not one politician stated that it needed to be done. 

As a third article we get USA Today (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2025/05/04/donald-trump-canada-greenland-military-force/83447719007/) giving us ‘Trump says ‘highly unlikely’ US uses military force to annex Canada’ where the tone is set by “In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, President Donald Trump said he still wants to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and does not envision the United States using military force to seize the neighboring country. During the interview, which aired on May 4, Trump said he’s still interested in annexing Canada but does not label it in the same category as Greenland, a Danish territory Trump has repeatedly suggested the U.S. could one day be compelled to acquire.” As such the tables are turned, America will not annex Canada, America will be given to Canada, to safe it from dangerous politicians and the people of America give it to Canada to deliver it from destitution and the people utterly out of funds. If only they had listened to me as I voice it a little over a decade ago. Redesign your tax system. It was never about taxing the rich, it was about redesigning the tax system they had, as it was never working on the design it had. You want to blame Apple (the first to become a trillion dollar company) and that never made sense with all the trillions of debt that America had and it took a mere abacus to work that out, not an non-existent AI supercomputer.

And now, as time is up for America (as I personally see it) we see the more violent side of America (annexing nations resources) and that solution is already too late to safe America, it might merely delay this setting a few more years and in the meantime, it will mine the hell out of Canada and Greenland, destroying these environments and to that I say ‘Hell no!’, because we need to step up for the environment and also because Canada is a Commonwealth brother and Greenland is part of our ally Denmark.

So have a great day and try to salvage your goods, because American time is, as I personally see it, done for.

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May 4, 2025 · 03:24

The nature of things

It was about to weeks ago that I wrote ‘Regarding that joke’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/19/regarding-that-joke/). In that article I wrote “A setting we all saw coming (even though the media seems to ignore this and merely keeps on shouting tax the rich) and the interested parties who are supposed to keep the people informed are merely shouting that Haley Joel Osment was intoxicated instead of working on the news, the media is pretty much on the discarded bundle of wannabe news”, as well as “As one source told me (and others) “China could theoretically weaponise the US Treasury holdings – by dumping it – meaning that it would sell off treasury holdings for less than they are worth. By doing so, China would then, because of the amount it owns, devalue the US dollar” so what happens when the dollar gets devaluated to this degree?” That was two weeks ago. In the meantime “Trump had demanded of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that Japan eliminate its $70 billion trade surplus with the US. He claimed it would be easy. He repeated the demand during April 16 negotiations in DC. In response to all this, Japan tried to placate Trump, refused to cooperate with other nations suffering similar abuse, and asked for special exemptions for Japan at the expense of others. In fact, one of the reasons Trump chose Japan for the first round of trade talks was his belief that Tokyo would cave within a few weeks, thereby inducing others to do likewise.” (Source: several). Yesterday I thought I saw water burn (which is pretty freaky to say the least). Axios (merely one source) gives us ‘Japanese finance minister says selling U.S. bonds a “card on the table”’ with the yowza response “Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday that the country’s $1.13 trillion in Treasury holdings were a “card on the table” in trade talks, The Associated Press reported.” Talking about the tiger that feeds himself with your hand, and the added text becomes “Japan is one of the five largest U.S. trading partners, as well as a rock-solid ally in the region, so there was some surprise when the U.S. hit the country with a 24% reciprocal tariff in early April.” And now Japan puts the US bonds they have on the table and with more than one trillion in hand they could flood the market and push the dollar straight over the edge. If that happens no run on the bank will save people and America cannot come up with that much money to feed the hungry vultures, as such America now has a massive problem and it is not China pushing the cart, it is Japan itself who will not go gently into that good night. So on one hand we see “As U.S. Treasuries sold off last month and yields spiked, there was speculation foreign governments might be dumping bonds”, as well as “J.P. Morgan Private Bank, in a research note last week, said there were signs of foreign selling pressure, but from private holders, as opposed to governments “weaponizing” their holdings” which is fun as my blog article preceded the two by one week, so its not merely a sign of the day time reference, the planet moved 89,292 kilometers in the time that lapsed between me writing the blog and J.P. Morgan Private Bank coming to that same conclusion (it’s actually nice to use NASA metrics to make a case). All that and AP News giving us (at https://apnews.com/article/japan-treasurys-trump-tariffs-44b9b37bf7a290701201322f69bade2e) yesterday ““It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo. Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of U.S. government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.”” The words from Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato to live by I say and when you combine this with the article I wrote two days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/05/02/saudi-arabia-goes-hiragana/) ‘Saudi Arabia goes Hiragana’ where we see that Japan basically has a way out to prevents its economy to become scuttled as well. As such the noose around its economical neck is diverted to a working solution. As I see it, America now gets that additional noose around its neck to double the efforts of the economy strangling itself (what a security measure). 

As the grand vizier of Agrabah (in Aladdin) states “The idea has merit”, get economical advice from a Disney character? Oh, kill me now (I is havening to be laughing out loud at present) or as Monty Python states: ‘Howls of deriving laughter’ are mine and the tears are falling over my cheeks. I haven’t laughed this hard since my fathers funeral.

So this must be the most original way that a politician ever shoot its own foot

Americans might not be laughing as this is actually is devastatingly serious. The (as some call it) bully tactics are now starting to bite back and the bigwigs in Wall Street will be seriously moving assets with an additional passports to zero tax nations, perhaps one that also doesn’t have an extradition treaty with America. So if any of those get plane tickets out of America (people like Jerome Powell or Alan Greenspan), you get the idea. When people take that move, the setting is all over for America, there will be no more moves to make. And these people have been ‘diversifying’ their income for decades. They moved small amounts around the planet and they could survive on their millions and they might vacate their consultancy firm from Davos in the Desert to Davos, Switzerland (a mere example). So they were ready from the get go and with this situation they might have larger consultancy jobs in several nations (including Switzerland, Monaco and the UAE). So these people will just vacate Idiotville as some call it (that place between Canada and Mexico) as quick as their Beechcraft Premier can carry them. No lines, no waiting.

So, will Japan do this? I reckon it will depend on who controls President Trump, because as I see it, the man is basically a loose canon at present and with that level of knee jerks the financial world is pretty hesitant and frightened on what he might do next. That’s is basically what I personally see.

A setting that is a lot less nice than my weird personal dream I had on Friday involving a mall, a coffeeshop and me meeting Matt Damon and Ridley Scott (seeking a replacement voice for someone with a perfect Dutch accent), the weird snoozes and snores I tend to have.

The nature off things that we embrace, some will walk the path away from bully tactics, some are on the market for having financial independence and some are about getting out of the line of fire (or a location about to get carpet bombed). Whatever we do, we look out for number one (ourselves) and optionally (read: preferably)with improved comfort levels. What that is tends to differ from person to person and in the words of the great man Tony Curtis (Operation Petticoat) “In confusion, there is profit” a very acceptable stage for a lot of people with a calculating nature. 

So have a great day and enjoy your coffee today (I had mine with a cookie this morning).

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May 3, 2025 · 02:25

Where is the gem?

That is the setting I am faced with. You see, like McCarthy had his Russian phobia, Trump is now delivering the Chinese phobia, also known as the yellow fear. We can argue how right McCarthy was in light of the events from the last few years (and a decade before that), But as the yellow fear is grasping America, the question becomes, is it a valid one? I am not denying that there are issues, the larger setting is now on big tech. You see Apple known for its multi trillion dollar value is now under the hammer. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86jx18y9e2o) gives us ‘Apple says most US-bound iPhones no longer made in China’ the issue is not that they aren’t made in China. The stage becomes where are they made now? At present Apple is giving us that “It comes as the technology giant estimated that US import taxes could add about $900m (£677.5m) to its costs in the current quarter, despite Trump’s decision to spare key electronics from the new tariffs.” Yet as I see it, the focus is in the wrong area. It is not where it is build now, the question becomes “At what loss?” And it is not money I am speaking of. These plants are Chinese in nature (as far as I can tell), and now we get a very new stage. No matter where they are set. China might not like it that certain IP manufacturing settings will leave China, which would be an acceptable move. Not for Apple and the losses they will receive because of it, and there the tariff war takes another bite out of the meat that is American Revenue. I am not stating that this will be great, but even at a mere 2% loss of quality it will impact numbers and it will hit Apple’s customer satisfaction. A simple setting that will impact the Apple revenue bottom line and it will be more than dollars. This could (could being the operative word) impact customer care numbers too. A whole new area for Apple to maneuver against the economic currents it is fishing in.

As Timmy the Cook gives us “He also said Apple is shifting its supply chain for US-bound products away from China, but it is India and Vietnam that are poised to be major beneficiaries of that move.” It is the setting that I fear, as China is pushed out, whomever gets the new ‘victory’ is likely to be no more than 95% of what China delivered and that impacts, so even if there is merely 1% impact (I fear it is larger) it impacts numbers of produced iPhones, as well as the QC of the product. So not only will Apple see less results, if this holds up the loss of quality (with an impact of more service patches) will upset its customers to no end and the speculative result is that this more merely impacts the need for a Huawei phone (I would be OK with the jump from Apple to Google), which will feel good for Google, but Apple will not be pleased. 

So as we consider “China will remain the country of origin for the vast majority of total products sold outside the US, he added.” With the setting that Made for America will not have the rosy stage that President Trump is hoping for. I might think that Apple will not like it either. And with “However moving production lines to India will take time and significant investment, costing billions of dollars”, with the added “Apple have said they want to invest $500B over the next few years.” And that still comes with my speculated expected loss of quality, a setting that Apple never wanted, or never opted for. 

So what is the real threat? Is it China or has it become President Trump?

Even as the Financial review gives us ‘Apple and Amazon have no idea what’s coming’, I myself don’t agree. They are very much aware that they know. The American Administration howling like little puppies that Amazon was making moves to give their customers a look at what the tariff was doing to their goods with ‘Donald Trump slams Amazon’s rejected plan to display cost of tariffs on goods’ (source: ABC News) I wonder when people will figure out to ask questions from an administration bend on hiding additional charges (to customers) and consider that the quote “US President Donald Trump has labelled a reported plan by online retailer Amazon to display the cost of US tariffs on its products as a “hostile and political act”.” Is clear evidence that this America Administration is all about a lack of transparency. It is the statement from Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth where I have issues. I do not deny that her statement is true, but lacking “There will still be tariffs that impact the supply chains [for Apple] and a cost to move them and build new factories” It took years to get the Chinese factories to work at the level they are now working at. The other factories will have to go through all these pains to get them running and that is before you consider that there would also be staffing issues. China and India have different settings in mental achievements. So the pain for Apple is merely beginning. 

A setting that the bulk of people are overlooking, I wonder why.

So as Amazon scrapped the tariff mention on its pricing, the call was heard by a lot of people and they are now looking at Temu and Alibaba. Alibaba mentioned a net income up by 237.53%. Today the Alibaba group is up by 3.83%. I cannot say how much of an impact the tariff has had there, but as others are merely scraping by and some are even reporting losses, the view on Alibaba might not be seen as a good thing, yet Wall Street seems optimistic about Alibaba (not that I know anything about that). 

So this is where the gem requires seeking. Is it still Apple? And there is a second setting. Will there be a larger call to reject the Apple for American markets? This is not easily answered because it is all depending on what is yet to happen. But Americans might be required to smuggle their new Apple devices into America. All because of a setting that the American administration itself is hunkering down on the lack of transparency. The one weird thing I am noticing is that the tariff solution is setting the minds of others towards what is the right path and at present it is not an American First item. And there is more bad news on the horizon (for America) as we seek gems we should be aware that Huawei is a much larger gem than expected. You see, Huawei is making larger captures revenue that expected. The headline ‘Indonesia is hooked on Huawei’ (Source: ASPI) is important as Indonesia is 3% of the planet. This might not seem much, but it gives Huawei larger importance to get into Bangladesh which gives them another 2%, so in a few short weeks Huawei gets an improved 5% goalpost. They already had visibility all over the Arabian peninsula and as Egypt is becoming a larger slice of their business, we see that America basically lost out of a 7% market share. As I see it America First is having a few corners they slice off from themselves. As these stages are evolving and the setting for Europe changes, as America is fumbling the ball. They are now ready to ignore American ‘advice’ and reopen doors with Huawei (likely with conditions) and as I see it Huawei is likely to respond favorable to that. As I see it, the game is changing andAmerica is losing several base stations in delivered ‘revenue’, a state that was almost unimaginable  less than a year ago. That was shown a mere two months ago with ‘German telcos pool efforts to retain more ‘open’ Huawei – sources’ and as this is realised, the rest of Europe is likely to follow, at least the EU is. 

The gem were not the tech companies, they are found where these companies were not, mainly through the pains given to these companies. Apple was not the focus, the companies that profited by the pain given to Apple. The moment you see that, is the moment that you realise that this chaotic setting is giving Chinese companies the open doors they were waiting for. I have no idea what Russia is up to, but this reminds me of the Toshiba settings. I wonder if this is what was supposed to happen, but no matter what. It seems that Huawei is profiting because of this. And with HarmonyOS now at version 5, Apple and others don’t only have to deal wit Android, they now have a competitor in HarmonyOS devices. This is a time to remember the words of Richard Yu who stated that all Huawei devices the company will launch in 2025 will be powered by HarmonyOS Next. You might have forgotten that, but I did not. So as Apple and Google were given settings of diversification, Huawei combined all the strengths they had and that will also impact market share. 

So as some will be given and accepted that the gem is America First. Others might not agree with that and as some sources are diverted Chinese corporations are now focussed on Asia, Arabian countries and Europe (through TAWAL). A setting I warned for almost two years ago and now it is seemingly happening. So where were these captains of industry?

Have a great day and enjoy the smell of coffee in the morning.

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