If anyone cares about the flight update, it got cancelled so I decided that I'd rent a car and just fly out of Nashville but turns out all the rental cars companies were out of cars (Even if you Reserved) so I have rebooked myself to fly out of this airport haha

But one could argue that the systems that profit by drowning us in information and platforms that make money by making everyone confused and angry are even scarier. The panopticon perhaps is less frightening than the slot machine.

Most dystopian narratives focused on authoritarian control like Big Brother watching, governments suppressing information, which we are increasingly experiencing.

From rubbery crypto steaks to disappearing universities in Rust Belt towns, from robots named Ruby that know where they’re going (Mar Vista, to deliver exactly one KitKat) to humans idling in parking lots - we are all living inside a phase transition right now. But what happens next?

inthiseconomybookshop.com

I also talk about what policies would work better according to history and how you can think about your portfolios.

Ray Dalio has said that this is the 'Overall Big Cycle' and that this all had to happen - which maybe, but torpedoing the world into an economic downturn and kneecapping industry probably isn’t the best solution to fix it.

This isn't just Wall Street. Small businesses will get hammered by this. And - it won't bring that many jobs back, because automation is key. What we do bring back will be exorbitantly expensive, and we can't make things like coffee or bananas here.

And the goal of all this is to apparently bring manufacturing back, right? Well, manufacturers are already hurting. Microsoft has already cancelled $1b in data centers in Ohio and Haas Automation is pulling back in CA.

It is certainly threatening the world order, and China is perhaps completely ready to fight both a trade and capital war.

So maybe will Congress step in? (remember, all of this is under the guise of emergency power) or maybe we see state level negotiations with manufacturers? Someone will have to do something.

The bond market is selling off which is exactly the opposite of what we would expect to see during a stock market meltdown (and exactly the opposite of what the administration wants). What can the Fed do - they can't really raise rates because of the inflationary pressure and they can't really do QE

We now have the largest tariff hike in US history (even with the 90 day pause and 10% universal tariffs that just happened + 125% on China).