Veterans Day. We’ll get to markets in a sec. But first things thirst.
Thank you for your Service.
And there’s a long list. My wife Elaine (who did 3 as an MSTS machine specialist at JBLM Lewis-McCord before it was a jumble). Brother in law Panama. My pal of 72+years (The Major) whose PhD-fighter-pilot son has made O-5. (The Major’s wife was a Captain but with her being a doctor, the whole protocol thing is confusing…everyone salutes everyone, near as I can figure it.).
Shout out’s to “warhammer” and Capt. Gooding – both O-5+ – they kept their oars in long after, if you follow.
My health conditions kept me out of Southeast Asia tourism back when. But I did a short spell on remote sites in Alaska as a CIV with equivalent rank (O4) when I was 19. Mostly, I learned the fine art of putting occasional checkmarks by my name on the O-club bar tab and running down hallways in the middle of the night to equipment rooms, trying to remember door codes…. (I became convinced that changing combination door access codes was a sure-fire way to break everything of importance behind a steel door.)
Hoo-rah, ladies and gents. And thank you.
Dancing to the Next One
With the big drone attacks over the weekend (big enough to intrude on Elaine’s dream realms, where she came back with reports of “big fires” about the time drone fogs were moving), we are not surprised to see the relations with Russia sliding on the press front.
We see, on the one hand, Trump says he advised Putin during a phone call, Kremlin denies Trump and Putin spoke – France 24. But running the other way is the report Kremlin says reports that Trump spoke to Putin are ‘pure fiction’. Alas, it almost sounds like we’re sliding back toward the “divided on Trump” divisions. Brings up the dinner table question: Who do you trust more? The WaPo which reportedTrump’s Putin call, or the Kremlin? (We’ll take the Kremlin and the spread.)
No way will Trump’s weekend HR moves surprise his supporters: Trump announces immigration official Tom Homan as ‘border czar’. And less leverage for the neocons as Trump says Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo will not join second Trump administration.
All this summed up in American state media as Donald Trump’s US presidential victory was sweeping
Neocons are ramping up rhetoric even now about Ukraine. 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops mass ahead of attack, U.S. says. What the story soft-sells is this “attack” will happen inside Russia in the Kursk region. So we see who’s pushing the neocon war agenda easily enough: Starmer and Macron seek to convince Biden to allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia.
The neocons are trying to keep up a workflow and tempo that can launch WW III while president Buyed-Harris is still in office. A kind of final insult to voters on the way out. They still have 70-days to pull it off…so keep an eye on them.
China – Taiwan
Pressure has been holding fairly steady – and remember, the region in still in the aftermath of a typohoon. Big picturing it, though: China increases Taiwan ADIZ incursions by 300% over past 5 months.
Meandering into Money
For now crypto fans are claiming a win as Bitcoin Hits New Record High After Trump’s Victory. $82,257 when I looked just now (5:55 AM).
My friend, The Economic Fractalist, was inquiring this morning as to whether there’s a way for Nov. 7 to match up with Sept. 3, 1929 – which was the high back then.
We ought to know more by Wednesday’s Peoplenomics column. But there is a case for a Global Peak of some order coming in here. See, we do two Aggregate Indexes. One of them looks at the major financial linchpins of the world:
That said, in a direct comparison of U.S. Aggregate versus the Global Aggregate you can sure see how the U.S. has been getting just wildly bubbly with the Trump win:
Now, to the right you will see two lines. One if the Global Oscillator *(black trace) while the U.S. is red and just crazy to the upside.
Fortunately, we don’t do “financial advice” but when we have looked at such oscillator “excursions” (OK, disconnects then if it will help) that has sometimes been an interesting place to put on a strangle. Because over time the indexes do tend to come back together. The art is getting the “when” right…
And this gets us to the Daily view of the US menagerie:
With the yellow trend (right) broken, the question is whether the white trace marking the top of the white trend channel will break. And again, we don’t offer advice…being more like a “translator” who tries to make out what is being “said” so real policy people can go place bets.
News Grindings
Our “news grinder” is larger than the nutmeg grinder int he kitchen. But they do have nuts in common:
Could the Neocons be “working” with the left-of-center press? Is John Boltobn angling for a Trumpist role? John Bolton says he didn’t hear Trump insult fallen soldiers in France. Sounds fishy to us (Bolton, NYT), but remember, I’m old, and have seen more sleaze than most.
(adding but wanted to get this up for early rising readers…)
Read the full article here
