The job market, inflation and tariffs

I guess I’ll put this here rather than the leopards/faces thread. I came across a YouTube video last week by the lady referenced in this article that directly discussed why farmers would vote against their own interests knowing that Trump had started a tariff war previously and would likely do it again. Her response (she’s a farmer and had run for office as a dem in North Carolina )….theyre not voting against their interests. 1)the overwhelming majority of full time “farmers” are wealthy. 2)even part time farmers(those with real jobs outside farming)do so more for the tax breaks and government land subsidies. It allows them to do things like acquire $100k pickup trucks tax free. The small subsistence level family farm hasn’t existed in generations.

When we think of “farmers” we should think of them the same way @superdave thinks of car dealers and act accordingly.

They’re pissed now because the government bailout welfare checks aren’t coming this time. Why? She rightly brings up the cow/milk parable. You gave Trump the milk already….wtf do you think he’s gonna want to buy the cow? Last time he was running for re election and needed your votes. This time he is either not running…or has no intention of leaving office…so your vote doesn’t matter. And he thinks you’re trash.

https://newrepublic.com/article/200822/farmers-rebel-trumpnomics-tariffs-economy

 

Why do you become wealthy? To feel good about yourself. What's an easier way to feel good about yourself? To see the type of people you dislike get hurt. These farmers and businessmen weren't working against their own interest.

 

Not my motivation at all. Not having to worry about paying the bills has made for a less stressful life. My self esteem hasn't changed.

 

If I had true ******** you money I'd be spending it traveling. I don't want to become stupid wealthy to hurt others, I want to become stupid wealthy so I can walk away from a bad job or just spend time traveling.

The two wealthiest people I know (One of them the family of William Davidson, who used to own the Pistons) are some of the most down to Earth people I've met. You wouldn't think William Davidson was wealthy looking at him as he typically wore a beige jacket and khakis and looked like he was going to the small family restaurant at 4 for dinner.

The other wealthiest guy I know is hippie light and was briefly retired until he went back to work because, "I got bored!" He spent his free time traveling and biking.

But for every Bill Davidson, there's a Betsey DeVos.

 

Could they not use blue-to-orange scale? Red/green color blindness issues are the most common.

 

That's what you would call "panic" - the US has little answer to counter China.

Is the US an important and huge market? Of course. However, the Chinese are conveying that they aren't desperate for it and are willing to take the pain to live without it.

Trump will end up blinking here because without those rare earth minerals, China could end up crippling the western tech sector impacting their military sector.

 

Bitcoin dropped all the way to it's 200-day moving average this morning. Nudged up a couple % since.

 

What's the price of tulip bulbs?

 

If I buy stock, I get a small piece of an actual company. If I buy bitcoin, what do I get - some secret numbers in a computer somewhere? Talk about voodoo economics.

 

You buy a small piece of company with what? Green paper with a dude's ugly mug on it? Depending where you are in the world, people may feel more comfortable/confident in holding and shopping with crypto, for which there is a finite amount of (in Bitcoin's case).
I'm not gonna pretend I know how it all the pricing works, but at the very least holding some crypto seems like a good hedge and helps diversify one's portfolio.

200-day MA is just under $104k. Some people may feel like they missed out on the Bitcoin. When something with great potential reverts back to its 200-day average, I see that as a second chance for those that have been on the sidelines (or to buy more if you feel underinvested in it). Hence, why I mention it.

 

They're better hedges, but have less potential. Especially now.

 

Being finite has no bearing on its worth. There are plenty of finite things that are worthless. Among those being a host of various crypto tokens that are created and discarded every day - including ones with nearly exact copies of Bitcoin code. And the limit is just software and can be changed if the miners decided it suited their purposes.

Crypto has no essential worth because it has no essential usefulness, except either as a means for conducting criminal activity or as a means for gambling.

The pricing is heavily manipulated. And it's not a hedge against anything, largely moving with stocks because they are both things you move into for gains and move out of for safety. The claim that it was a hedge against inflation was destroyed when we actually had inflation and it went down.

 

Those used to be useful because holding Bitcoin yourself is kind of a pain. But now there are Bitcoin ETFs, so they mostly serve as companies trying to do the "infinite money glitch" where they sell stock to buy Bitcoin raising the price of Bitcoin thus justifying selling more stock repeating the cycle. Most of them are in the toilet now because the glitch stopped working for them, as it eventually will for $MSTR too.

 

In countries with unstable currencies lots of the mid-upper- and upper-class use crypto, not because they are criminals or gamblers but because you'd be stupid not to. Just ill-advised to keep anything beyond pocket change in a currency that can devaluate at any moment.

Using crypto, you can also get better exchange rates through an app like AirTM which goes by the street/ unofficial rate using stable coins, which are also more reliable than many national currencies. Here's an example where you can get almost twice as much local currency for your €, £, or $ than if you used your ATM or credit card when traveling and paid for things at the official rate like a muppet. https://bolivianblue.net/en

Alternatively, you can bring a wad of cash with you on the airplane, hope things go well at customs and then negotiate with randos on the street.

 

I firmly believe that becoming a billionaire breaks your brain and leads to a perpetual state of psychosis that no one calls you out on because you literally can make people do whatever you want with your money.