Tag Archives: Forbes

November 5, 2025 · 04:07

Since when?

I saw a message from Semafor. It reminded me of a story that ran the news two years ago. That isn’t always a bad idea, so I checked it out. It gives me ‘ADNOC still sees a long future for oil’ (at https://www.semafor.com/article/11/04/2025/abu-dhabi-reverses-course-on-oil-phaseout) it gives me that ADNOC (the Emirati equivalent of Aramco) gave us (two years ago) “When Al-Jaber took the podium again on Monday to host ADIPEC, the world’s biggest energy conference, he emphasized that “the long-term outlook shows demand growth for every form of energy” and that oil demand will stay at or above its current level well after 2040. A number of other oil CEOs seem to share that view.” I concur and as I see the the AI disaster coming to all our doors, there is no way it can even get the waves it needs to have without oil and there is no denying that it might last until 2040, perhaps even 2050. There was more they gave “One explanation Al-Jaber cited for the switch is AI data centers, which have become Big Oil’s go-to justification for a rapid buildout of new fossil infrastructure. Lord John Browne, former CEO of BP and now managing director of a climate-focused fund at the private equity firm General Atlantic, offered another explanation: The conference, he told me by phone from Abu Dhabi, “was dominated by the American viewpoint, which is that there is no such thing as the energy transition.” The UAE, in addition to bolstering its own voluminous oil and gas production, has good reason to court the Trump administration: On the sidelines of ADIPEC, Microsoft announced it would invest $15 billion in data centers there and that it has secured the administration’s permission to export Nvidia chips for them.” A small smirk appeared on my face. I had seen the Nvidia chips to the UAE, but the side quest that that Microsoft would be investing to set up a data centre there was somehow kept quiet. But it was the last section that caught me. With “There’s still strong momentum for investing in decarbonization, Browne said. But whether, in the near term, the global oil market is in for a period of expansion or contraction, he said, “is about as clear as mud to everybody.”” I agree, there are counter actions happening. The Trump anti-renewable setting is one of them. Then there is the almost ludicrous setting of essential nuclear reactors that American needs within 3 years is another one. There are plans for several reactors, but they are the better part of 5-8 years away and that gives America an optional shortage for 3-5 years. As such AI centers will not (or mostly not) be in some operation setting, then there are the lack of data validation stations and that is merely the top of the iceberg. 

As I see it, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber was correct and he was so already in 2022 before I started writing about AI (as it is still a myth) and it is re-enforces by ‘Energy CEOs Warn More Investment Is Needed As Demand Continues To Rise’ by Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/gauravsharma/2025/11/03/energy-ceos-warn-more-investment-is-needed-as-demand-continues-to-rise/) where we are also given “The bosses of some of the world’s largest energy companies warned the sector needs to invest more in a range of sources, including oil and natural gas, as global power demand continues to rise. Speaking at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Group CEO of ADNOC, Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas major, said a “balanced and inclusive approach” was needed to meet the world’s growing energy demand.” A story I have been giving for almost a year, but the setting is that Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber gave us that view two years ago and that makes him the clear insightful voice in a pool of blundering blind people, which I have been illuminating over the last few months. OK, it is not that hardy. There are a few more warning the world of the fact that this will not happen without energy settings and they are massively lacking at present. As I see it, the only country that is ready for this is Canada, the merely have the sent 10% to America and keep the rest and they are fine, Americans might not like this and I reckon that Virginia with their 663 data centers will see almost 60% go out of business due to a lack of power, but that is business for you. That is when a small snippet given to us all by the Sultan becomes apparent “That’s why more than $4 trillion in capital investment is needed annually to cover grids, datacenters and all sources of energy supply, Al Jaber said.” And it suddenly hits me, America doesn’t have the funds. All the boasting and the settings of StarGate and America is out of funds. Was it that obvious that it needed Canada as the 51st state? Not merely because of the rare earths, but the water and electricity would be essential to keep the lights on in America?

Which comes with the final wisdom by the Sultan. And it is seen in “Al Jaber added that “dormant capital” tied up in existing energy infrastructure needs to be freed up.

“Ultimately, the long-term outlook shows demand growth for every form of energy across every market,” he noted. So, when it comes to the energy transition, growing power demand and managing the trilemma of sustainability, security and affordability, Al Jaber called for a “focus on the data, and not the drama.”” That is a worthy quote to keep in all out minds “focus on the data, and not the drama”, as I see it, my new hero. A quote that is worthy to enclose in our hearts. I could never have said it better. I would have gone with “Drama is found where data is ignored”, that is how I am at times, but I reckon that is why I am not the board member and CEO of ADNOC, and the Sultan is. OK, ADNOC was never in the Netherlands, but Shell was and I never amounted to anything there either. So there is that to consider. But the largest setting is that Semafor alerted me to something that was said two years ago and now that is becoming the reality of today and we need to take notice, because it seems to be painting the walls of several nations and it because we let the drama overwhelm most of us. The others (like me) who focussed on the data mostly saw the setting and we are now less and less being drowned out be media as they are waking up to the reality that is about to hit their front doors and their party ended last year, now they either adjust or become obsolete, because the millions of consumers of that media are waking up to the fact that they are entering a nightmare where they can no longer afford to watch TV or charge their mobile phones. That is the price of seeing the price of 16.07¢ per kWh be adjusted to 82.27¢ per kWh, which basically sets the price to almost 100% above the price of electricity on Hawaii, but when that becomes the national norm, 340,000,000 Americans will oppose it (to put it mildly), revolt is the most likely operational setting and there is no way out for this Administration. They made their bed with lousy decisions and I reckon that they will need an escape clause to a place like Argentina soon enough after that. 

So as we see this fiasco evolve, it seems that I was right all along, but someone was there earlier, they saw the setting that was going to be and now as more and more Americans realise that the party is closing, they will need a new directive and they need it sooner rather than later. 

Have a great day, and remember, we got by with candles and their illumination. From that we got the 3 hour rule, which advises against burning a candle for more than 3 #hours at a time for all kins of security reasons. Well, in winter you are a bit stuffed, but open fires will light the way and I just remembered that I have over a dozen books to read. It would become a good time to do so.

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August 18, 2025 · 19:15

Reasoning as is

That is at times the setting. We always THINK we know the reason, but do we really? I had my given settings on Abu Dhabi as early as 2025, August 2nd. I spelled it out in ‘As Hogwarts expands’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/02/as-hogwarts-expands/) and I stated “Yas Island becomes the most appealing choice for a whole flock of tourists, now definitely deciding that there will be a viable alternative for Orlando, and when Disney arrives in 2027/2028 also on Yas Island, Florida will see the largest downfall in economy they have ever had.” That was the setting I expected to see. Now we see Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2025/08/17/the-real-reason-for-building-disneyland-in-abu-dhabi/) giving us two weeks later “It is no secret that Abu Dhabi is building theme parks to diversify its economy. Its fortune was built on fossil fuels but as its reserves are beginning to run out it has brought global theme park giants to its shores to drive tourism revenue. That’s far from the only magic touch they have. Although Abu Dhabi and neighboring Dubai are seen as being playgrounds exclusively for the world’s wealthiest people, the vast majority of their residents are far from billionaires. There is good reason for this.”

I tried too get a job there once, I am not in oil (not even olive oil) but I do have a knack for IT and in alway am fluent in Dutch, a skill that I hoped would get me a job with ADNOC. Yet as America was setting the larger premise of a failed government in play, Abu Dhabi was giving me additional settings and if you pay close attention to Yas Island, it could be the lifeline of a larger setting that could given you a heralding ovation when you live there. As the UAE is massively crime free, more reasons to go there. In addition (to what I saw) its that Forbes also gives us “It explains why a staggering 88.5% of the 11.4 million residents of the UAE are expats according to Global Media Insight. The number of expats from the United States is reflected in the vast array of its stores and restaurants which have made their way to the UAE. They include everything from chains like Applebee’s, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and IHOP to fine dining outlets such as California’s Urth Caffé and Sarabeth’s which began life as a small bakery-kitchen on New York City’s Amsterdam Avenue in 1981.” It is nice to see this, but I have to wonder why they never saw it when I saw the clear signs. And there is not the simple settings of “Although Abu Dhabi and neighboring Dubai are seen as being playgrounds exclusively for the world’s wealthiest people, the vast majority of their residents are far from billionaires.” I agree that is a clear setting, however lines like ‘Abu Dhabi’s real estate market records broad-based growth in first quarter’, ‘Abu Dhabi real estate is on fire in 2025 with deals soaring past Dhs51 billion in just six months’ and ‘Abu Dhabi and Dubai Ranked Top Emerging Global Data Center Markets in 2025 Report’ as well as the setting that 10,000 millionaires are replacing their ‘home’ towns with a proper setting in the UAE.

The is also happening in the last month alone. In support of it all we get ‘How Yas island is shaping Abu Dhabi’s real estate landscape’, as such, Forbes is telling the truth, but it letting certain parts take a backdrop to the larger picture. Abu Dhabi is the new place to be and America needs to realign the stupidity they are handling now. As I see it, their future is depending on it. 

But that is not the only parts. At this point Forbes gives us a side I never really looked at. They give us “It explains why data from the California-based Economic Research Institute shows that the average annual salary in the UAE comes to $48,993 (AED179,949) compared to $66,991 in the U.S., proving that you don’t have to be a billionaire to live there. The UAE has a wide catchment area to draw on as one-third of the world’s population is located within a four-hour flight of the country. It is also part of the largest global airline hub in the world, with 120 million passengers traveling through Abu Dhabi and Dubai each year. In order to welcome them as workers and tourists, the UAE has some of the friendliest visa regulations of any country.” Which is great for two reasons. Everyone likes a good show and an affordable show and the UAE is providing that. In addition, it shows how stupid the American VISA setting is now. As such, try to imagine millions of tourists giving up on America for the next 3 years and pointing their caps at the UAE. Millions of people who think that the hollow setting of America can be let go for at least three years. You wanna bet that this is scaring the theme parks in Orlando (and other cities) to death? 

That is the setting we see evoke the Forbes Article (in case you were willing to denounce what I gave you all). Yet Forbes gives you more. We are also given “The impact of this was laid bare in a separate report by the Khaleej Times in May which revealed that 23.7% of applications for visas to Europe’s Schengen area filed by UAE residents were rejected last year. That’s not because of the UAE, but the diversity of its residents as visa applications are based on nationality. The 11.5% of the population that holds UAE nationality benefits from having the world’s best passport, according to the Arnot Capital Global Passport Power rankings, with visa-free travel to 133 countries. The dark clouds aren’t just hanging over Europe. Recent data from the National Travel and Tourism Office revealed that the number of overseas visitors to the U.S. in July fell 4.9% on the previous year, only reaching around 86.6% of the pre-pandemic level despite it being one of the busiest seasons of the year. It is the latest development in a months-long trend which also saw international arrivals fall 6.6% in June.” As it can be seen, there is every chance that the operator on Yas Island will get a hell of a lot tourists more than it might have considered. All it needs it a great campaign and at present Warner Brothers could be chockablock full from this October until April 2026. Because people in Europe want to escape winter and as I see it, there is only Abu Dhabi as America is dealing with its political administration. As such the Canadians escaping Florida this Winter, these Snowbirds have just been advised of a much larger appealing destination this winter (and the next three years).

As this all comes to pass, America will merely see an incursion of debts, come and harassment, things the tourist does not need. 

As such I say YAY Yas Island, and ADNOC management seeking Dutch translators, please consider me as well.

The reasoning as is, is set to the joy of a vacation, As such the UAE is opening its borders to Abu Dhabi ad Dubai is a mere 30 minute train ride away. Have a terrific day today.

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August 16, 2025 · 16:51

The BBC woke up

That is the setting I was given this morning. After I have been saying for a few weeks now that the pieces aren’t fitting in regards to a few things. The BBC now gives us (12 hours ago) ‘The US economy is a puzzle but the pieces aren’t fitting together’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwypgx90243o) where we are being told “They say his tariffs and crackdown on immigrants risk a return of 1970s-esque “stagflation”, when a sudden oil shock prompted stagnant growth and spiraling prices, except this time the crisis would be self-inflicted. The White House has just as steadfastly dismissed those concerns, attacking the experts – and, in the case of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, firing her”, as well as “A few days later, Moody’s Analytics economist Mark Zandi declared on social media that the economy was “on the precipice of a recession””

We then read “On Friday, the US government reported that spending at retailers and restaurants rose 0.5% from June to July – and that spending in June had been stronger than previously estimated. “Consumers are down but not out,” wrote Michael Pearce, deputy chief US economist at Oxford Economics, which is predicting a modest recovery in spending in the months ahead, as tax cuts and a stock market recovery boost confidence.” And as I see it, there is someone adhering to specialized requests, on the go at the setting of someone. The article then states the setting that is ‘perceived’ as “forecasters expect price increases to widen in the months ahead, as firms sell down pre-tariff stock and raise prices, now that they have more confidence about what the tariff policies might be. That’s why there was so much focus on the producer price index, which measures wholesale prices commanded by US producers before they hit consumers, offering a clue to what’s coming. It accelerated at the fastest pace in more than three years in July.” I saw this in a few ways. Consider the tourism industry. We see clear fall down issues. And would luck have it, the other are responding in a very similar way. Forbes gives us ‘New $250 Visa Integrity Fee Will Cost US $11 Billion, Say Tourism Officials’ the story goes repeated by MSN, and others. At the same time we see TTW (Travel and Tour world) release over a dozen articles in the last day on other places doing other things, like giving us ‘Vermont Unifies New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Wisconsin in Boosting Tourism Industry Attracting US and Canada Tourists During This Fall’ All whilst the larger picture is that “Canadian tourism to the US has declined due to tariffs and anti-Canadian rhetoric, with a 38% drop in road trips and 24% drop in air travel in May.” And the same numbers seems to apply for June, July and likely august too. So the picture is distorted and someone with larger fingers is juicing the numbers in different stages and states. All whilst TTW used to give us a limited number of views, someone is thrashing the typewriters there giving us a large amounts of ‘debatable’ data sources. Someone does not want us to see the setting that things are a lot worse for America than the media is willing to make us realize and that it merely part of it all. 

All whilst NPR radio gives us ‘Trump is tightening the screws on corporate America — and CEOs are staying mum’ which comes (at https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5501591/trump-corporate-america-capitalism) with “Corporate America doesn’t want to fight with President Trump in public. But as a result, it’s ceding him an unprecedented amount of control over the shape — and future — of U.S. business. In the past week, the president has turned up the heat on big companies and their CEOs to an extent that is unprecedented even by Trump’s norms-shattering standards. He has publicly attacked companies and their executives throughout his political career — but now he’s demanding firings of executives who aren’t even household names, such as a corporate economist at Goldman Sachs.” Bad news is not allowed in America, not even a little. As I see it, the puzzle pieces don’t fit because the willing minority doesn’t want to give yo the goods, they want to get the jobs they aren’t qualified for or they don’t want to lose their jobs and that is because there are three more years of Trump and Elon Musk is likely the only one to be able to survive this setting, and because he is likely to be sitting on another trillion dollars of value. So why haven’t we heard from Jerome Powell? And CNN gave us (three days ago) ‘Trump is considering suing Jerome Powell, White House says’ (at https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/12/economy/trump-lawsuit-fed-chair-powell) with the setting of ““Fortunately, the economy is so good that we’ve blown through Powell and the complacent Board. I am, though, considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible, and grossly incompetent, job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings,” Trump wrote on his social media platform”, as well as “Firing Powell would be a legally complicated endeavor, given that Senate-confirmed members of the Fed’s board can only be fired “for cause.” However, Trump seems keen on homing in on the Fed’s multibillion-dollar building renovation as a possible reason that would merit a “for cause” firing. The president claimed the renovation should have been a “$50 Million Dollar fix up. Not good!”” A setting that could erupt in a messy situation. I ‘personally’ don’t like the guy, but as far as I can see, he’s done a really good job with the pawns and issues he could have played. He has been enormously good for America and that needs to be said. Whoever would replace him would not likely be able to do better and that would be another iron in the fire giving President Trump a heartache all over the financial setting. As I see it, Canada is lucky to get the Former British Bank governor as Prime minister of Canada. That man can slice and dice whatever America throws the way of Canada. At present Canada created new channels of income with Mexico and Europe whilst depriving America of these settings. There never will be be a 51st state for America. 

Oh, and how is America’s economy good? China has been able to stranglehold (America’s way of putting it) on rare earths minerals. So how much of these rare earths come from China? The Pentagon gave us “The Department of Defense has made a substantial commitment to domestic rare earth production by acquiring $400 million in MP Materials preferred stock. This investment converts to common shares, giving the Pentagon a 15% ownership stake and positioning it as the company’s largest shareholder, surpassing previous major stakeholders including BlackRock Fund Advisors.” So where are these materials precisely coming from? 

Small questions that have a larger impact on business. At Present China has opened new Channels to the UAE and (speculatively) Egypt as well. Egypt is looking forward to getting its fingers on the Chinese J-35A Stealth Fighter. I’ve been told that it is a cheaper version of the J20 mighty dragon that is at present not seen outside of China.

But these parts are all a setting of a larger debate, a debate that gives us that America is losing defense contracts all over the globe, and China is ready to give it a go. How accurate these ‘facts’ and numbers are are currently not on the minds of western media. Still defense is merely one angle that is sowing the trend of recession. As others are ‘silenced’ on the settings and it merely on the front of AI, we see debatable settings. Which in light of energy flaws is a super hilarious setting. These systems need electricity (and a lot of it), so how that plays out is anyones guess. 

So it is nice of the BBC to wake up, but a lot more is required to give us the goods. So Auf Wiener Schnitzel everyone and have a great day, its 16:39 and as such I have mucho food on the brain at present. It is still Friday in Vancouver, so they have some time to wait until they can have this German delicacy themselves.

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August 1, 2025 · 04:58

The accusers

I saw a message fly past and it took me by surprise. It was CNBC (aka Capitalistically Nothing but Crap) and the accusation was ‘Microsoft and Amazon are hurting cloud competition, UK regulator finds’ (at https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/uk-cma-cloud-ruling-microsoft-amazon.html) with “The regulator is concerned that certain cloud market practices are creating a “lock-in” effect where businesses are trapped into unfavorable contractual agreements.” So, that’s a thing now? The operative word is concerned. So, is this the way former Amazon UK boss, Doug Gurr, on an interim basis is showing the world that he released the chain and necktie from Amazon?

There is ‘some’ clustering and as the setting is advocated by some the score at present is “AWS holds approximately 29-31% market share, while Microsoft Azure has around 22-24%, and Google Cloud holds about 11.5-12%” The only surprising thing here is that Google is remarkably behind Microsoft by a little over 10%. Nothing to be worried about, but still the numbers set this out. The infuriating setting by the the CMA giving us “The CMA recommended a further investigation into Microsoft and Amazon under a strict new U.K. competition law to determine whether they have “strategic market status.” I am not ‘attacking’ the CMA, but as the old credence goes “Innovators create corporations, losers create hindrance for others” I suggest you take that as it goes. 

Yet there is more behind this all. Forbes gave us last week ‘Microsoft Can’t Keep EU Data Safe From US Authorities’ (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2025/07/22/microsoft-cant-keep-eu-data-safe-from-us-authorities/) where we see “Microsoft has admitted that it can’t protect EU data from U.S. snooping. In sworn testimony before a French Senate inquiry into the role of public procurement in promoting digital sovereignty, Anton Carniaux, Microsoft France’s director of public and legal affairs, was asked whether he could guarantee that French citizen data would never be transmitted to U.S. authorities without explicit French authorization. And, he replied, “No, I cannot guarantee it.”” And this is how Microsoft faces a near death sentence by the American administration. So much so that Microsoft seemingly is creating a data centre solely for the EU. Julia Rone gave us last year (late 2024) “It has been well acknowledged that the European Union is falling behind the US and China when it comes to cloud computing because of its lack of technological capabilities. In a recently published article, however, I argue that there is another important and often overlooked reason for EU’s laggard status: the persistent disagreement between different EU member states, which have very different visions of EU cloud policy.” I take that at face value, as I am considering (through mere speculation) that these member states are connected to American stake holders in media trying to hinder the process, but that is another matter.

So as we see ““Microsoft has openly admitted what many have long known: under laws like the Cloud Act, US authorities can compel access to data held by American cloud providers, regardless of where that data physically resides. UK or EU servers make no difference when jurisdiction lies elsewhere, and local subsidiaries or ‘trusted’ partnerships don’t change that reality,” commented Mark Boost, CEO of cloud provider Civo.” It makes me wonder how America is different from the accusations that America threw in the face of Huawei. It is like the pot calling the kettle black. And this also gives wonder where the accusation against Amazon and Microsoft ends, because the cloud field is seemingly loaded with political players. They all see that data is the ultimate currency and America (as it is near broke) needs a lot of it to pay for the lifestyle they can no longer afford. In Europe the one that stands out (at least to me) is a firm I looked at in 2023 and it is growing rapidly. It is Swedish and not connected to any of the three and could become the largest in Europe. Its long-term vision involves operating eight hyper-scale data centers and three software development hubs across Europe by 2028, employing over 3,000 people. By 2030, the company aims to operate 10 hyper-scale data centers and employ over 10,000 people. There is too much focus on 2030, as I see it the American economy collapses on itself no later than 2028 and as I speculatively see it, it will drag Japan down with itself. That setting required a larger acceleration in both Europe and Asia as America will not play nice as per late 2026. At that point too many people will see where showboat America is heading too and the reefs in that area will be phenomenal. So, as I see it, the entire political swarm behind data centers and fictive AI will require a whole new range of management and I reckon that players like Amazon and Microsoft have never been dealt these cards before, so I shudder to think what will happen when it faces accusations from the EU, the CMA and others. This aligns with the accusation (from one source) giving us “An antitrust complaint filed by Google to the European Commission in September 2024, alleging that Microsoft’s licensing terms unfairly favor its own Azure cloud platform, making it difficult and expensive to use Microsoft software like Windows Server and Office on competing clouds.” I wonder, didn’t Microsoft played a similar game with gaming?

So whilst the infighting is going on on a continued setting, I wonder where Oracle will end up being? As I see it this is rather nice, but I am accusing myself at this point that we aren’t face with a tidal wave, but merely with 5 cups of tea all stating there is a storm happening and whilst the teacups are talking to each other and showing how bad the storm is, the reality is that it is not smooth sailing, but seemingly as close to it as possible. For that you need to see where Evroc is standing, where it is going and how fast it is achieving this. The second market is Oracle, how it is progressing and who it is partnered with (pretty much everyone) and these two elements show us that there are governmental captains stating that their pond is in a dreadful state (whilst presenting their cup of tea as a much larger pool then it is) the corporate captain stating there is a storm brewing, but absent of evidence and the media is flaming every storm it can so that they can get their digital dollars. But consider that Oracle is presenting good weathers and there are alternatives whilst the media actively avoid illuminating Evroc, with only TechCrunch giving us in March “Amid calls for sovereign EU tech stack, Evroc raises $55M to build a hyper-scale cloud in Europe” there were a few more and they are all technical places. The western media is largely absent as there are no digital dollars to be made here.

So consider what you see and try to see the larger picture, because there is a lot more, but some players don’t want you to see the whole image, it distorts their profit prediction. So did you see the little hidden snag? Where is Huawei cloud? Whilst this is going on ‘Huawei hosts conference on cloud technology in Egypt’ where we see that “the event drew more than 600 government officials, business leaders, and ecosystem partners from over 10 countries and regions”, as I see it, this is a classic approach to the “While two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it” expression. So consider that part too please.

Have a great day.

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July 12, 2025 · 05:34

IT said vs IT said

This is a setting we are about to enter. It was never rocket science, it was simplicity itself. And I mentioned it before, but now Forbes is also blowing the trumpet I mentioned in a clarion call in the past. The article (at https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2025/07/11/hallucination-insurance-why-publishers-must-re-evaluate-fact-checking/) gives us ‘Hallucination Insurance: Why Publishers Must Re-Evaluate Fact-Checking’ with “On May 20, readers of the Chicago Sun-Times discovered an unusual recommendation in their Sunday paper: a summer reading list featuring fifteen books—only five of which existed. The remaining titles were fabricated by an AI model.” We have seen these issues in the past. A Law firm stating cases that never existed is still my favourite at present. We get in continuation “Within hours, readers exposed the errors across the internet, sharply criticizing the newspaper’s credibility. This incident wasn’t merely embarrassing—it starkly highlighted the growing risks publishers face when AI-generated content isn’t rigorously verified.” We can focus on the setting about the high cost of AI errors, but as soon as the cost becomes too high, the staters of this error will get a Trump card and settle out of court, with the larger population being set in the dark on all other settings. But it goes into a nice direction “These missteps reinforce the reality that AI hallucinations and fact-checking failures are a growing, industry-wide problem. When editors fail to catch mistakes before publication, they leave readers to uncover the inaccuracies. Internal investigations ensue, editorial resources are diverted and public trust is significantly undermined.” You see, verification is key here and all of them are guilty. There is not one exception to this (as far as I can tell), there was a setting I wrote about this in 2023 in ‘Eric Winter is a god’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/07/05/eric-winter-is-a-god/) there on July 5th, I noticed a simple setting that Eric Winter (that famous guy from the Rookie) played a role in The Changeling (with the famous actor George C. Scott). The issue is two fold. The first is that Eric was less than 2 years old when the movie was made. The real person was Erick Vinther (playing a Young Man(uncredited)) This simple error is still all over Google, as I see it, only IMDB has the true story. This is a simple setting, errors happen, but in over 2 years that I reported it, no one fixed this. So consider that these errors creep into a massive bulk of data, personal data becomes inaccurate, and these errors will continue to seep into other systems. The fact that Eric Winter at some point sees his biography riddled with movies and other works where his memory fades under the guise of “Did I do this?”. And there will be more, as such verification becomes key and these errors will hamper multiple systems. And in this, I have some issues on the setting that Forbes paints. They give us “This exposes a critical editorial vulnerability: Human spot-checking alone is insufficient and not scalable for syndicated content. As the consequences of AI-driven errors become more visible, publishers should take a multi-layered approach” you see, as I see it, there is a larger setting with context checking. A near impossible setting. As people rely on granularity, the setting becomes a lot more oblique. A simple  example “Standard deviation is a measure of how spread out a set of values is, relative to the average (mean) of those values.” That is merely one version, the second one is “This refers to the error in a compass reading caused by magnetic interference from the vessel’s structure, equipment, or cargo.” 

Yet the version I learned in the 70’s is “Standard deviation, the offset between true north and magnetic north. This differs per year and the offset rotates in eastern direction in English it is called the compass deviation, in Dutch the Standard Deviation and that is the simple setting on how inaccuracies and confusions are entered in data settings (aka Meta Data) and that is where we go from bad to worse. And the Forbes article illuminates one side, but it also gives rise to the utter madness that this StarGate project will to some extent become. Data upon data and the lack of verification. 

As I see it, all these firms relying on ‘their’ version of AI and in the bowels of their data are clusters of data lacking any verification. The setting of data explodes in many directions and that lack works for me as I have cleaned data for the better pat of two decades. As I see it dozens of data entry firms are looking at a new golden age. Their assistance will be required on several levels. And if you doubt me, consider builder.ai, backed my none other than Microsoft and they were a billion dollar firm and in no time they had the expected value of zero. And after the fact we learn that 700 engineers were at the heart of builder.ai (no fault of Microsoft) but in this I wonder how Microsoft never saw this. And that is merely the start. 

We can go on on other firms and how they rely on ai for shipping and customer care and the larger setting that I speculatively predict is that people will try the stump the Amazon system. As such, what will it cost them in the end? Two days ago we were given ‘Microsoft racks up over $500 million in AI savings while slashing jobs, Bloomberg News reports’, so what will they end up saving when the data mismatches will happen? Because it will happen, it will happen to all. Because these systems are not AI, they are deeper machine learning systems optionally with LLM (Large Language Modules) parts and as AI are supposed to clear new data, they merely can work on data they have, verified data to be more precise and none of these systems are properly vetted and that will cost these companies dearly. I am speculating that the people fired on this premise might not be willing to return, making it an expensive sidestep to say the least. 

So don’t get me wrong, the Forbes article is excellent and you should read it. The end gives us “Regarding this final point, several effective tools already exist to help publishers implement scalable fact-checking, including Google Fact Check Explorer, Microsoft Recall, Full Fact AI, Logically Facts and Originality.ai Automated Fact Checker, the last of which is offered by my company.” So here we see the ‘Google Fact Check Explorer’, I do not know how far this goes, but as I showed you the setting with Eric Winter has been there for years and no correction was made. Even as IMDB doesn’t have this. I stated once before that movies should be checked against the age the actors (actresses too) had at the time of the making of the movie. And flag optional issues, in the case of Eric Winter a setting of ‘first film or TV series’ might have helped. And this is merely entertainment, the least of the data settings. So what do you think will happen when Adobe or IBM (mere examples) releases new versions and there is a glitch setting these versions in the data files? How many issues will occur then? I recollect that some programs had interfaces built to work together. Would you like to see the IT manager when that goes wrong? And it will not be one IT manager, it will be thousands of them. As I personally see it, I feel confident that there are massive gaps in the assumption of data safety of these companies. So as I introduced a term in the past namely NIP (Near Intelligent Parsing) and that is the setting that these companies need to fix on. Because there is a setting that even I cannot foresee in this. I know languages, but there is a rather large setting between systems and the systems that still use legacy data, the gaps in there are (for as much as I have seen data) decently massive and that implies inaccuracies to behold. 

I like the end of the Forbes article “Publishers shouldn’t blindly fear using AI to generate content; instead, they should proactively safeguard their credibility by ensuring claim verification. Hallucinations are a known challenge—but in 2025, there’s no justification for letting them reach the public.” It is a fair approach, but there is a rather large setting towards the field of knowledge where it is applied. You see, language is merely one side of that story, the setting of measurements. As I see it (using an example) “It represents the amount of work done when a force of one newton moves an object one meter in the direction of the force. One joule is also equivalent to one watt-second.” You see, cars and engineering use Joule in multiple ways, so what happens when the data shifts and values are missed? This is all engineer and corrector based and errors will get into the data. So what happens when lives are at stake? I am certain that this example goes a lot further than mere engineers. I reckon that similar settings exist in medical application, And who will oversee these verifications?

All good questions and I cannot give you an answer, because as I see it, there is no AI, merely NIP and some tools are fine with Deeper Machine Learning, but certain people seem to believe the spin they created and that is where the corpses will show up and more often than not in the most inconvenient times. 

But that might merely be me. Well time for me to get a few hours of snore time. I have to assassinate someone tomorrow and I want it too look good for the script it serves. I am a stickler for precision in those cases. Have a great day.

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July 7, 2025 · 14:41

Burning Bridges

This is the setting that Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/07/05/how-can-we-trust-anything-xbox-says-now/) gave me. You see Microsoft (always happy to get slapped around) gets the crooked eye from Forbes. The article ‘How Can We Trust Anything Xbox Says Now?’ late last night (might have been early this morning) and whilst I am always in the mood to slap Microsoft around, I do have an issue with fairness. As far as I feel it, I have decently slapped them silly on more than one occasion. Yet I have a few issues with this article. They aren’t lying, merely focussing on the wrong side of the dice. The dice states ‘six’, but we could assume the setting that ‘one’ fell, because that is what is below ‘six’ I a not telling you that six is the wrong number. But we tend to see the side of the dice that is up. Yet in early life I learned that randomization is an exact science (I couldn’t resist saying this), you see, the internet is full of dice games. And that is where the problem lies. You see a dice, you think a dice, but in automation, there are no dice. It is a random generator (overly simplified stated STATE(RANDOM(1,6)) and that is what you think happens, but if the result depends on settings and we get STATE(RANDOM(WhatWeSayLow, WhatMightBeHigh)) the numbers get fixed and that is what happens in gaming. This is not a gaming setting as Forbes gives us “After the launch of Hi-Fi Rush, Aaron Greenberg, VP of Xbox Games marketing, said: “Hi‑Fi RUSH was a breakout hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release.” The studio, Tango Gameworks, was shut down a year later, and was only saved by a third-party purchase.” You see, there are a few issues with this. The first is that it comes from marketing, a member drenched in wishful thinking (by order of his superior) and ‘advocates’ that setting. Then there is the setting of what happened in that year? Was the market wrong (undecided is a better term) and that gives us two settings that is merely the start. The setting had a future, because a third party scooped in. Then we get “During its FTC trial, Microsoft presented a diagram attempting to prove that it would keep Call of Duty multi-platform, a key point of doubt. The idea was that existing huge franchises like that would stay multi-platform. Some current IPs that Microsoft has bought would be released on other platforms on a case-by-case basis. Then there would be a classification of games, original IPs like Starfield and Avowed, that would stay exclusive to Xbox. While that’s true for those two games so far, this concept has now joined a statement from Phil Spencer: “I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say ‘thou must not.’”” This setting is a little different. We should see a larger setting. Like, Microsoft never expected that its system would become the joke it has become. I merely raise the setting of 3 Sony’s (or 5 Nintendo Switch) to every Xbox series X, and it is about to get worse for Microsoft (Amazon and Tencent will be joining us soon and in bigger numbers). The market didn’t set the premise that some set their sights on. And the spin isn’t what it used to be. It seems to be the setting of the boy who cried console a little too often. And as I see it, the massive mistakes made aren’t small ones. Only last week were we given “Fable 4 will be released in 2026. An Xbox Game Studios update confirmed the game needed “more time,” pushing it back from its original 2025 launch window.” As such this game is now up to 18 months away. And the world is changing and Microsoft needs every penny it can get. You do remember that they bought $100 billion in IP and the return on investment doesn’t seem to be coming (at present). Now consider the setting that EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda all have shifted timelines and the larger IP deliverers now need a year more and that has got to hurt the Microsoft stage. It doesn’t matter what Game pass does. When the games aren’t coming you get the setting of a courtesan that forgot that it was the maids night out and all her laundry is still out to dry. That might seem like weekend lost, but Microsoft is looking to a lull of 52 weekends in a row. In the meantime Nintendo and Sony are making headway in games and the Microsoft gamers are feeling the pinch. A thought for Microsoft is to offer its population the series Halo and Fallout as free downloads, which might lessen the pressure (a simple but not essentially effective deal) as I see it, these two could lessen the pressure by an expected 16%-20% (up to two months) and it could be spread to one episode a week 8 for fallout and 17 for HALO, it wasn’t difficult, but it is a first thought. It might result in additional sales. Perhaps someone already mentioned it to Phileas Foggy Spencer, he can adjust even more red lines. 

So whilst Forbes is telling us no porkies, the article is missing a few items like time lines and as such the marketing impact. As Status Quo gave us in 1988 burning bridges is a state where actions that make it impossible to return to a previous state of a relationship. At least that was what I got out of it and it still largely applies. The consumer is a fickle beast and it adheres what tantalizes it and that is where the media tends to find its digital dollars. Cyberpunk got that slapped on its chest by adhering to the media in stead of telling everyone that the game will be ready when it is ready. Ubisoft got that with the first Watchdogs and the examples are legion (intended pun). What is on Microsoft that they didn’t have a stronger push for more games. Game pass is only good to a certain degree and when EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda lack releases, the console gets to be a pretty boring place. Microsoft is finding that out the harder way. And still the mismanagement issues do not stop (read: fuck ups) as we are also given “Now, in this latest story, reports have emerged that Phil Spencer “couldn’t stop playing” a new MMORPG codenamed Blackbird from ZeniMax’s Elder Scrolls Online team and was incredibly impressed with it. That was in March, and three months later, Blackbird was cancelled this past week.” In this the fuck up is plural. When he can’t stop playing a game it should be ready, as such when it gets cancelled three months later the question becomes “What on earth are you playing?” You see, when it is an MMORPG it needs to have systems in place and when something like that gets cancelled three months later it can’t have been any good (or so I personally think). 

And in addition we are given “In the same batch of cancellations, we had Everwild, where after a recent visit to Rare, Spencer said: “It’s nice to see the team with Everwild and the progress that they’re making,” Spencer said. “It has been [a while]. And we’ve been able to give those teams time in what they’re doing, which is good, and still have a portfolio like we have.” That was in February, and Everwild was also cancelled last week.” So what was Spencer doing? As such we have several failures and two cancelations and the other big boys are at least a year delayed. So, I see the setting that these people will optionally see their Xbox gathering dust for a year. Not the reason I buy a console. I have both the PS4 and PS5 and at least one of them is working on a daily basis. Even with the delays I see coming. As I personally see it Microsoft has had a bad decade and when you consider that the bad blood started with the Xbox One gathering momentum over the series S and series X there are a few things going wrong and Spencer would do well to nip this in its tracks (it is too late to nip it in the butt). I cannot see the setting of “whether Spencer is still the best choice to lead this ship”, I would need more reliable data to support that setting and lets face it, it is more than marketing. There is a failure on several levels and as Microsoft is seemingly losing more and more media friends their bad settings will merely continue at present.

So I see that the waves are against Microsoft, but the need to slap them shouldn’t overwhelm warning of ‘needless-slapping’ Microsoft. I don’t think I did that and in this day and age, your console is as much as you can get as the America administration are throwing entertainment in America in a messy situation, that being said, Microsoft is global so as I see it all countries (except Japan) can learn from this. As I see it, Microsoft needs to look at the bridge they burned and consider what can be fixed and what cannot. There is no guarantee that these bridges could be fixed, as their population are consumers, yet when they say “yeah sure okay”, your population is about to go somewhere else and that will be (as I personally see it) the end of Microsoft gaming. 

I might not be a Microsoft fan, but Microsoft pushed Sony to create the PS3 and PS4, when Xbox falls away, I will fear for the setting that PS6 could bring and I like the path PS3, PS4, and PS5 gaming got me. 

Have a great gaming day today

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January 5, 2025 · 11:59

What is the difference?

A note to start with. This is pure presumption, there is no evidence that this is happening at present. And the second part is that I will be talking about AI in this article, all whilst I know it doesn’t exist yet. The setting of ‘AI’ is the conclusion of LLM and deeper machine learning at present and the solution in some cases is amazing, yet it is not AI (and that never will be the case), yet players all over the field (like for example Microsoft) they are set to the ‘AI’ field and there lies the danger, too many will snap their teeth into this field and they do not know what they are doing. The ‘et al’ parties in this like the revenue and will to some extent ‘accomodate’ what comes and what will connect to it. 

If this is the first setting of that stage, the second would be the accusation that ‘Meta Opens Floodgates For AI-Generated Accounts On Facebook, Instagram’ (source: Forbes). This sets up a new stage in data collection and data gathering and this connects to a movie called ‘Free Guy’ (with Ryan Reynolds) and that set in motion some thoughts that occurred to me. This part will be speculation to some, presumption as I see it for the simple reason that I have seen decades of lazy programmers and not to clued in data scientists who rumble to appease their data collecting masters. 

The premise
A man is going out on a date with his girlfriend, they are having a lovely meal and at that point he gets arrested for an outstanding warrant in Riverwood NSW, as he is accused of stealing merchandise from a shop and he is sought out to answer questions for the death of a police officer in that location, he is not wanted, but is a party of interest. He goes along with the setting, as only to see what is going on. He is certain that they aren’t looking for him. 

You see, the man is not the person they are looking for, to be honest there is no such warrant but there is the snag. Someone mixed up profiles and his gaming profile where he visited the Riverwood Trader in Riverwood in a place called Skyrim. You think I a kidding? No that is the reality we face when AI’s, who are not AI’s as AI’s do not yet exist. In the bungling mess that data scientists face they will cross the wrong paths and leave a lot of people in a dark setting as they are in line of warrants and black marks by the setting of that stage. And when someone will query the stage and ask if Riverwood NSW and Riverwood Whiterun are the same locations, or virtual ones. The computer will simply answer “What is the difference?”

Settings
The setting of correct staging of locations and perhaps the simpler settings that a game crime is not a real crime the computer throws a NULL, it was never taught the distinction. The data Scientist never thought it would become a reality. And there is the stage when we get fake profiles collecting data. No distinct verification of data required (apparently).

It was a danger I saw years ago, but no one seemingly caught on and now as everyone wants to trow in their ‘AI’ to be more efficient in data collection, real profiles and real people get twist in a setting of what is reality and that setting will become the event of the day for a lot of people.

I am not looking forward to the arrest warrants from Florence and Rome for killing these so called Italian Carabinieri. I killed dozens in Florence and Rome and they will not realise that those done as my Altar Ego (Ezio Auditore) were not real, but leave it to any data scientist to leave that little setting out in the open. Now that some are pushing their ‘AI’ delusional reality to the larger profile and matching stages with all kinds of profiles we face these dangers. Should anyone say “That will never happen, we are to clever for that” I will answer “Why are you selling AI while it doesn’t exist yet?” These are stages that will soon come to fruition and even as it is not exactly that exact, there will be cross linking social media sources a they think it is their great O (ask any girl, she’ll know what I mean) and the simplest setting is decades old. You can not compare a basket of apples and a basket of oranges by calling both baskets ‘fruit’ the simplest setting ignored for simple greed. Because these ‘AI’ systems will accept both as fruit, even as an actual AI system would see the difference and simply state “I cannot compare a multitude of Oranges and Apples in the same comparison. The difference between a real system and an orchestrated system. 

Have a warrant free day today.

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July 1, 2024 · 10:51

The changes to a Digital Currency

I was alerted to a story on https://www.cointribune.com/en/saudi-arabia-joins-the-wrong-blockchain/ stating ‘Saudi Arabia joins the wrong Blockchain…’, well that is merely a matter of opinion. You see the CBDC (aka mBridge) is a digital currency that is controlled by banks. It is under control by China (read Tencent) and is a system that runs next to swift. It could rival it over the next few years and moreover could overtake swift too (speculative view by the writer, aka me). The involvement of Saudi Arabia implies “The kingdom’s integration into the BRICS club is far from trivial. Member countries are clearly expressing their intention to purge the dollar from their exchanges. The arrival of the Saudis could mean that Saudi oil exports to China could one day be conducted via the mBridge blockchain, in yuan”, implies is as I word it, but the implications as quoted is the first major dent into the ‘settings’ that could take a lot of Wall Street out of the frame, again this is purely speculative. Another source, Forbes gives us (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/08/24/bitcoin-vs-cbdcs-analyzing-universal-access-in-digital-currency/) ‘Bitcoin Vs. CBDCs: Analyzing Universal Access In Digital Currency’, which they gave us last August. They also give us “The digital cash revolution was spearheaded first by bitcoin and then by other cryptocurrencies, which has led to the birth of Central Bank Digital Currencies.” This is followed up by “it’s the rise of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies that may represent the most transformative phase in this evolution.” I think that is the larger issue. I don’t trust Bitcoin, not because of the digital setting, but the picture that it is not supported by any coins, or gold make it a virtual currency. ‘Everyone’ is on board for what they think it will bring. But the larger picture becomes that a virtual setting could from today ($62,730.9037) and when it goes to $50,184.7258 tomorrow (worst case scenario) there is nothing stopping it, moreover I reckon that all these pensioners hoping to get rich of this, this downfall will result in lots of pensioners ending with nothing. That was the fear I alway had. This is why I do not trust it. The CBDC (mBridge) is as said cemented in “the country’s central bank.” Forbes also gives us on the of the 23rd of June (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/06/23/cross-border-cbdc-focused-project-mbridge-moves-forward/) “For more than three years, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been working on a cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) project known as mBridge. In a nutshell, the project aims to improve efficiency, speed and transparency in cross-border payments.” It is the transparency that matters and the fact that it is under control of a nations central bank. This implies that banks are ultimately responsible for issues, with Bitcoin this is anyones guess. The text “MBridge recently took an important step forward with the completion of its minimal viable product (MVP) stage and the decision by Saudi Arabia to join the project.” You see this means that mBridge would be getting support from places like Aramco and China with their Yuan. This puts the USA on a slippery slope (commercial wise) if the oil dollar pushed to nowhere, the Yuan will gain strides of upgrades. Additional we get “According to China’s Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI), mBridge transactions take seven seconds and cut cross-border payment costs by 50%.” I believe that the 7 second delay is only applicable to cross border issues and I do believe that this is a temporary delay (before the first upgrade a time upgrade), the reducing of cost by 50% would be cheered by all sides of the equation (probable with the exception of Wall Street). The article ends with “but risks to the initiative will rise sharply if it becomes seen as part of broader U.S.-China competition” a political setting, but as that rises the USA (and optionally the EU) will lose a lot more. For the most the people are fed up with the American bully tactics. It is hurting their pocket. Consider that a decade ago where everyone copied the narrative “Washington officials began warning of Huawei’s ability to embed spying capabilities in its gear” but never was any EVIDENCE presented by anyone. We get setting like ‘could’ and ‘the possibility arises’’. The former director of German intelligence stated to Deutsche Welle that they didn’t understand that technology. So where is the evidence? America presented a case that was settled a decade earlier. China has issues with the US and EU. This is their shot across the bough. And it is one that matters. With billions in revenue gained, with the BRICS setting and with a setting that could replace the oil dollar with the Yuan, Wall Street would lose a lot. So whilst the American administration begs for cheaper oil, all whilst they pretty much shot themselves in the foot. 2025 and 2026 might prove disastrous for both the US and EU. The EU will accept the mBridge solution a lot earlier than the US would and when the Bitcoin loses 20% or more in value. Many pensions will be reduced to zero. It was the risk of a decentralised system with no foundation in any bank or in a commodity like gold, but that is merely my point of view.

Enjoy today, it is still yesterday in Vancouver and Toronto. 

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February 5, 2024 · 02:54

van Speijk paradox

It is not a real paradox, although I would claim it was one. I was looking at the Russian losses and I was looking at the Forbes article (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/03/complete-stupidity-and-incompetence-as-two-russian-tanks-collide-while-attacking-near-donetsk/) when a few things came to me. There was the case of a police force known as the comedy capers.

You see, when tank commanders are so ‘untrained’ optionally short sighted that we are given ‘Two Russian Tanks Collide While Attacking Near Donetsk’. Some tankers would call this utter stupidity. I am not gifted with tank experience, as such I cannot say that. But the overall the light of Russian intelligence is dimming. To see this, we need to take a look at exhibit B.

There we see that the tanks have been diminished by almost 48%, APV’s are down 42% and artillery systems 46%. The 20th strongest army in the world did this to the 3rd strongest army in the world. I spoke earlier about the logistical farce that is the Russian armed forces and on that note we see several other failures.

What is the van Speijk paradox?
Van Speijk was a Dutch naval commander and on 5 February 1831 he decided that as he could not stop the Belgiums from taking his boat, he decided to fire into the powder room and boom went his boat in the harbour of Antwerp. According to some it was beautiful. He, his men and most of his enemies stopped living in that precise moment. The Russian paradox is there as these people should have known better. Their mistakes are dealt with in Tank operations 101. As such I wonder if it wasn’t intentional. Better be out of commission than blown up. But it is speculation, I have no evidence to support this other than the little I know from the 80’s. So are the soldiers that incompetent or just scared? It is an important questions and I have no evidence one way or the other. The one part I do know is that the Ukraine send 387,940 people for fitting into body bags to be shipped back to Russia. That short war is now 2 years, some short term war and it is getting worse. With the rearmament of the Ukrainian forces and the Russian forces losing more and more hardware (specifically tanks, APV’s, airplanes, helicopters and that list goes on. Russia is losing this and the Russian troops are demoralising more and more. 

It all sounds good for the Ukraine, but there is a snag that is starting to show up. We are now mere steps away from Russia becoming desperate and that tends to be a bad thing. No matter what they do there is most likely a European impact. That is what I feel is likely to happen. Scandinavia and Germany are the most likely targets, but I am speculating here. On the upside a war on two fronts will break Russia. Their logistics are shoddy, their trained staff is mostly dead and what gets conscripted will do so without decent equipment and spring is at least 8 weeks away. All that adds up to a riddle of bad news for the Russian forces and it leads to more demoralisation on the Russian front. 

You will consider my view to be wrong and that is fine. But you just look at the Russian losses numbers and all the news from Russia and see where that point of view leads. 

Have a nice day.

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January 31, 2024 · 00:11

Forbes Foreboding Forecast

Yup, it happens. Sometimes the others are all on your train ride, but that does not make your prediction true. Yet to see this we need to take the whole image into consideration. For me I saw this come towards us like a freight train without any brakes when I wrote about it as early as September 2020. I wrote several times that these settings were a really bad setting and the outcome would not be a nice one. Then I warned that the US economy had nowhere to go, not when they insult and offend Saudi Arabia (and to some extent the UAE), as such China would gain billions in revenue. We saw last month (could have been 2 months ago), news that America was ‘worried’ about China making so much headway into the middle East. And now Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/01/29/the-us-dollar-is-finished-wall-street-legend-warns-trumps-and-bidens-china-nightmare-is-suddenly-coming-true/) gives us ‘The U.S. Dollar Is ‘Finished’—Wall Street Legend Warns Trump’s And Biden’s China Nightmare Is Suddenly Coming True’. Really? First off, this isn’t suddenly, I made mentions for almost 4 years that this stage was underway. The fact that the dollar is finished is not entirely wrong, but not to the degree we see predicted. Wall Street will take any stance to diminish that danger. People will end up with nothing, but the almighty dollar will sail on, even though the galleon it once had will be replaced by a simple sloop (as piracy goes). 

So whilst we get “The U.S. dollar is “finished as the world’s reserve currency,” analyst Richard X Bove told the New York Times just days after his retirement from a storied 54-year career as a Wall Street analyst.” I initially tend to agree. Yes the dollar as a reserve currency is pretty much a bye bye black sheep operation. It is the “Bove, who sees bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as winning in a post-dollar dominant world, predicted that China will overtake the U.S. economy” part I do not completely agree with. You see the Yuan is and will be an important part of the global economy, but China has its own skeletons to deal with. Evergrande is one and that $300,000,000,000 issue will hinder the Chinese economy to a massive degree. Not to mention the Chinese population that is hurt by that loss. I reckon that being related to Shawn Siu in China is a lot more dangerous than being a loudmouthed disrespectful American in that region, but that could merely be my take on that situation. You see, China needs both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to get the traction to push forward. Yes, they will push the dollar of its throne and Americans with their arrogance did this to themselves, but without the Middle East China has no real momentum. That was the larger station we needed to see. I tried to warn people, but to them I knew nothing. And true, I have no degrees in economy, but I have looked into numbers for decades and I have both a creative mind to see beyond the numbers and a critical mind to question any hypothesis I have. As such I saw what is now being published as ‘suddenly’. My timeline has three years of warnings of the dangers the US and its dollar were facing. I do not have the knowledge or insight to discuss or oppose the digital currency changes, but I can tell that the ego of ex-presidents with his opposition to the digital dollar will be the end of the American economy. The digital dollar would allow Wall Street to diminish the impact the slam the dollar is about to make. If that stops the damage will be enormous. I don’t think the US economy will have any cards to play. Especially now that the EU nations are vying for the same defence contracts that were once almost uniquely America alone. With France, the UK and Germany vying for whatever spending dollars they can, China might end up with a little less, but they still have a lot of billions coming their way, all billions lost to America now and the EU is trying to get a few as well, an indoor fight between the US and EU is not one they were ready for and overall the American evangelisers are now starting to be a lot more quiet. Money talks and the US has none left. Now that the Ukrainian Russian military debate is now three weeks away from two years. A short term prediction by the Kremlin is now a setting that they could actually lose. A stage not considered a year ago and that also brings a lot more problems to the EU nations as well as America. America that has been catering to Russian needs no less and that is important as the people are now a lot more eager to accept China as the new leader. This is not some Nixon fantasy, this is the case of Wall Street deciding on what is best for the world and that is not how it works. That only has any value in the delusional mind of some. So whilst we see what happens next, we see that the power players are vacating towards the UAE. Some will go to other destinations, but the mess that they are leaving behind (not all due to them) will leave the American population without anything left. So what do you think happens when the dollar collapses and 200,000,000 Americans see that their savings are gone. Do you really think they will will side with Trump and his multiple multi million lost lawsuits? Consider that no one has a clear view on how much he owns. Some state that he only has now less than 3 billion and he was dropped from the Forbes 400 list, he came up $300,000,000 short (a lot more with the lawsuits he lost). To give you some reference, Elon Musk is apparently 96 times wealthier. He has 9600% more wealth than Donald Trump and that is the person Americans pissed off, all whilst he has the foundations of a solution for the energy shortage they face. So how is ego holding up? When the UAE engages with that solution, America will come up short in funds and energy. So the ‘suddenly’ setting wasn’t there. This has been out in the open for up to 4 years. And that picture goes from bad to worse soon enough. 

Could I be wrong?
It is a fair question and I ask myself that question pretty much every day. It is not indecisiveness, it is not doubt. It is about verifying the numbers again and again from whatever reliable source I can find. Verification is everything. Richard X Bove and I got to the same conclusions via different ways and as such I wonder why others were never on that page. Why was the media not all over this? They were so ready to protect Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried, but this they didn’t see? Ask yourself that question and wonder what else they got wrong and more importantly why did they get that wrong. You might come to some conclusions that will scare you. Mainly because you all worked towards your retirement, but how many funds saw the golden future that the dollar bonds brought? When that falls flat your retirement will be gone and there is no coming back from that. I think that a few banks in America, as well as Credit Suisse Group AG (now part of UBS), isn’t it interesting that none of them were properly investigated by the media? They all gave the same story, but no one looked into how many dollar bonds these banks had. It might be nothing, but I doubt it. You see, Credit Suisse was handed a $54 billion lifeline. The fact that ANY bank needed THAT MUCH money was never properly investigated and it wasn’t just them. We see all the claims, but to need a 54 billion lifeline implies that that piece of rope is made from weaved platinum threads with diamonds. When did you ever need a lifeline like that?

And these places all matters, because that is to some extent the impact that the dollar pushed for, at least that is how I personally see it. There will be plenty of people stating that I am wrong, but after 4 years I have been proven correct too many times. Let them come up with verifiable data and clear sources to prove me wrong. I dare them.

Enjoy the day, my Wednesday just started.

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