groundloop.bsky.social
@groundloop.bsky.social
Reposted
“A second inflatable frog has now been spotted wiggling through Portland.”
October 8, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Also the other charts people post in the comment. Fits my intuition that bond markets tend to be less untethered from reality. But also interesting how the British stock market correctly reflects that Unternehmen Barbarossa is a colossal failure despite its initial successes.
Apropos of nothing, a reminder that German stock markets kept climbing in an almost uninterrupted fashion in the run-up to WW2. Investors are really, really bad at pricing serious institutional and political risks.
August 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted
To stop the war in Ukraine text STOP to VLADIMIR

To stop the tariff war with China text STOP to XI
April 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Wonder what inspired me six years ago. It was buried so deep on YouTube I had forgotten about the piece myself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMv2...
Meta-Funk: The Art of No Deal
YouTube video by Kapitalistenschweine
www.youtube.com
April 24, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Had to laugh so hard at this on Bloomberg, something like "US asked China to request a call."

Isn't that that the US requested a call? It is like "I ask you to request a date from me."
April 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted
I see we've reached the "don't worry, the Finance Minister is a Western-educated former fund manager" stage of the emerging market crisis playbook.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
April 11, 2025 at 8:38 AM
✊💶🔥

💵🙏🙏🙏
April 10, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted
Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx
April 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted
My translation of a viral Japanese meme summarizing decades of U.S. complaints about Japan not buying enough American cars (while not making the kind of cars Japanese consumers actually want):
April 8, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted
It’s the stupid, economy.
April 8, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Now 28 days for the initial prediction: Looks pretty exact with Musk turning against Navarro and Trump's tariffs.

I don't think I am that clairvoyant actually. When I wrote it, my hunch was that I would be proven right, but it might as well take three or six months.
It was a bold bet 22 days ago. I may misread the development. But am I completely wrong that Musk's role is not as dominant as it was? His failure in Wisconsin shows he has no Wunderwaffe to bail Trump out. Exploding rockets and imploding Tesla sales do not help either.
As kind of a bet: very soon = within a month or two. Could be in stages: Cut out of the inner circle, subordinate to cabinet ministers, DOGE has to produce boring reports with no relevance. Reminds me so of Bannon in the first term whose role was also vastly overestimated.
April 9, 2025 at 12:29 AM
It was a bold bet 22 days ago. I may misread the development. But am I completely wrong that Musk's role is not as dominant as it was? His failure in Wisconsin shows he has no Wunderwaffe to bail Trump out. Exploding rockets and imploding Tesla sales do not help either.
As kind of a bet: very soon = within a month or two. Could be in stages: Cut out of the inner circle, subordinate to cabinet ministers, DOGE has to produce boring reports with no relevance. Reminds me so of Bannon in the first term whose role was also vastly overestimated.
April 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
I found it notable that Zelensky stressed the "soon" here. Could mean many things:

1 - in any event: feeding the paranoia
2 - he knows something about Putin's health
3 - Ukraine taking aim at him personally
4 - they know someone else is planning a coup/assassination
5 - a mix of 3 & 4
Zelensky's "he will die soon" doing a number. Everybody thought it was about health, but it is perhaps more about feeding the paranoia.
March 30, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted
Trump administration meets the first rule of European politics:

| ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄|
| TROIKA |
| ALWAYS |
| WINS |
| ______|
(\__/) ||
(•ㅅ•) ||
/   づ
According to the Financial Times, the European Union rejected Russia's demand for a ceasefire in exchange for lifting sanctions.

The EU stated that sanctions would remain in place until the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
www.ft.com/content/f5fe...
March 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted
March 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted
Dip every Canadian bullet in vaccine. They'll never invade.
March 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Seems as if I got that right. Interesting that it is now a slower process of sidelining someone into irrelevance while in the first term I would have expected a sudden dismissal by tweet.
Only a hunch: Kellogg seems comparably decent, more like one of the "adults" in the first administration, and tried to avoid a complete sellout of Ukraine. Trump got angry that it took so long, told him the timeline was mid February. When he realized Kellogg was not even close, he took over himself.
March 17, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Since everybody is focusing on Musk so much, who granted is the most visibly annoying exponent of all this. My hunch is that he is already on the way out and will very soon have more time for his families. Trump will stab him with glee once he feels Musk is more of a liability than an asset.
March 11, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Paraphrasing Wagenknecht: "What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 13,435 votes, which is one more than we have, because we got to 5%."
February 24, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted
Years - 3
Victories - 0
Casualties - 850,000🌻
Coups -1
Ruble -💩
War crimes -♾
NATO -🇫🇮&🇸🇪
POTUS -1
Budeskanzler -0
Assad -Moscow
Warship -Submarine
Submarine -Sub marine
Aircraft - 🚀💥
Refineries -🔥
Raccoons -1🦝
Donkeys - -36🐴
Red lines - ➡️

I remain a master strategist
February 24, 2025 at 8:48 AM
This is a very good explainer of the tempo effect (among other things). Folk demography is all the rage, esp. in the US, whether media, blogs, social media, often with a catastrophic framing and political conclusions. I'd think there are two markers to separate wheat from chaff. ...
New article by me!

It's a common mistake to think the TFR is a prediction of the average number of children women will have over their lifetimes.

But it's not. The TFR can decline even when the eventual number of children per woman stays constant or even increases; the opposite can happen too. 🧵
February 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Bannon, Musk, and Vance - the intellectual trifecta of Western Civilization - called on them to vote for the unpopular populists. But the Germans did not listen. SAD!
February 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
As for Ukraine giving away its resources for nothing, my hunch is that what we see is just dragging it out for as long as possible and keeping hope alive with the master negotiator. What I hope & also expect is that the EU will jump in at the last minute with a counter-offer that wins hands-down.
February 23, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted
Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.
February 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
One thing I have wondered: I was expecting Trump to target the EU from day one, especially tariffs. There have been rumblings and announcements. But not yet. Many possible explanations. For example, he might have learned in his first term that the EU cannot be bullied as easily and can strike back.
February 12, 2025 at 10:36 PM