Down goes the Dow

agip wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

That's what i thought.

It seems the occupation wasn't working but was effective from letting it get worse, so in that sense, it was working. But admittedly, the attempts at peace talks were not progressing (since they were announced over a year ago) and there seemed to be a shortage of things left to try.

I suppose one could argue that 'permanent' is 'tenable' since we've been in South Korea for generations.

but that's different...two strong central governments vs the utter chaos and lack of central government in Afghanistan.

Really good article on this in today;s NY TImes.

Seems that Pentagon has been advocating for a partial withdrawl in order to see how the Taliban would respond, and then to adjust accordingly, But Biden has for a long time been admenant about full withdrawl, with the tacit reasoning that Afghan military forces outnumber the insurgency, better trained, too. But what the Biden Admin. miscalculated on was takeing into account the will of the Afghan armed forces upon the realization that the US was gone, and they simply folded much faster than anyone thought they would.,

It paints that pentagon as being more realistic in its warnings and proposed strategy, and Biden as being reckless, and consequently being proven wrong.

Johannes wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

We went in guns blazing. After $Trillions spent we leave in a hurry humiliated. So much for Empire building. Better take care of our own sick society.

Empire building? In Afghanistan? You, sir, are clueless.

Oh dopey troll Bertrand, oh sorry, Johannesburg🤒

The Russians found this story on Hunter Biden’s laptop passed it on to their cronies at Zerohedge. Some other stuff too. Anyway, interesting story on Bill Ackman SPAC blowup.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hell-came-millennials-lost-millions-bill-ackmans-spac-implosion

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

The Russians found this story on Hunter Biden’s laptop passed it on to their cronies at Zerohedge. Some other stuff too. Anyway, interesting story on Bill Ackman SPAC blowup.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hell-came-millennials-lost-millions-bill-ackmans-spac-implosion

About my first job out of grad. school, i worked for this really well endowed small business owner, and he told me" "Never risk more than you can stand to lose," and he went on to say, "don't put at risk anything that should you lose it, you'll go around hating life."

He was about the first guy i'd met that was tapped into the markets.

I had no idea what he was talking about at the time.

seattle prattle wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

The Russians found this story on Hunter Biden’s laptop passed it on to their cronies at Zerohedge. Some other stuff too. Anyway, interesting story on Bill Ackman SPAC blowup.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hell-came-millennials-lost-millions-bill-ackmans-spac-implosion

About my first job out of grad. school, i worked for this really well endowed small business owner, and he told me" "Never risk more than you can stand to lose," and he went on to say, "don't put at risk anything that should you lose it, you'll go around hating life."

He was about the first guy i'd met that was tapped into the markets.

I had no idea what he was talking about at the time.

Not even gonna ask how you know he was “well endowed”😳

okay then wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

About my first job out of grad. school, i worked for this really well endowed small business owner, and he told me" "Never risk more than you can stand to lose," and he went on to say, "don't put at risk anything that should you lose it, you'll go around hating life."

He was about the first guy i'd met that was tapped into the markets.

I had no idea what he was talking about at the time.

Not even gonna ask how you know he was “well endowed”😳

You might say, his assets went straight up, and stayed up. Okay?

Seven out of eight indexes on our world watch list posted gains through August 16, 2021. The top performer is France's CAC 40 with a gain of 23.19%, our own S&P 500 is in second is with a gain of 19.27%%, and India's BSE SENSEX is in third with a gain of 16.40%. Coming in last is Hong Kong's Hang Seng with a loss of 3.85%.

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2021/08/16/world-markets-update-august-16-2021?utm_source=boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign&utm_content&utm_term&bt_ee=rZELQ8CsuhP8DcgbvEQXJeduzmT6ZD8eLTuB3%2BR8O1O7gXNdkPrVWnPbe2HXSl%2Bu&bt_ts=1629204701171

here's a great one for the overly cautious and those looking too much at the past and not enough at the future.

wonderful anecdote

https://twitter.com/NeckarValue/status/1427984802196725765?s=20

[quote]agip wrote:

here's a great one for the overly cautious and those looking too much at the past and not enough at the future.

wonderful anecdote

the

quote]

Hey agip et al, how y'all doing. I'm winding up my second annual Beat the Texas Heat Tour ( 6 weeks ). Currently staying in the town where we lived previously ( Lower Hudson Valley ). I've got a ?, the restaurants here are charging 3-4% surcharge if you use a card to pay. We've been to restaurants in KS; IL; IN; MI; WI; NJ; MA ( TX of course ) and never encountered this before. Anyone else have this same experience ? Are they doing this in NYC ?

gente,

Traveled to California last month and did not encounter that there. Took the wife out for our 47th yesterday, and no surcharge as well. I do recall something about this along the line of recouping Covid shut down and reopening costs.

Igy

Kowa-Bunga gente wrote:

[quote]agip wrote:

here's a great one for the overly cautious and those looking too much at the past and not enough at the future.

wonderful anecdote

the

quote]

Hey agip et al, how y'all doing. I'm winding up my second annual Beat the Texas Heat Tour ( 6 weeks ). Currently staying in the town where we lived previously ( Lower Hudson Valley ). I've got a ?, the restaurants here are charging 3-4% surcharge if you use a card to pay. We've been to restaurants in KS; IL; IN; MI; WI; NJ; MA ( TX of course ) and never encountered this before. Anyone else have this same experience ? Are they doing this in NYC ?

gente,

that's loco! Never heard of that at restaurants nah. In the city it's often a sales tax-cheat scam so there's no credit card record...just a way to avoid running something through a register. But that's not likely in a fancy gente-level eatery.

The hudson valley is getting a renaissance right now - lots of NYC money flowing up there. If you haven't, search for things like 'best new restaurant (or hotel) in the hudson valley" - some very cool establishments opening up there. very cheap land and rents. for now.

Hope all is well.

In market news, the US is down 3% and predictably I don't feel fine.

I;m going to make a large sale today - bloody heck the market keeps going up so my stock allocation keeps having to be trimmed back. Now seems like a good time to reallocate and take some profits.

But

the VIX is already up to 24 so I'm probably running to the other side of the boat with a lot of people and then it will swing back next week. But point is that I need to rebalance sometime and now seems a good time, as the market doesnt have much direction and we've had some massive gains.

agip wrote:

here's a great one for the overly cautious and those looking too much at the past and not enough at the future.

wonderful anecdote

https://twitter.com/NeckarValue/status/1427984802196725765?s=20

Hmmmm…..do I listen to Buffett or Igy? Hmmmm…

Hey Bertrand, oh I mean Johannes, or is it Portia today:

2021-08-12-BI-3-Mkt-to-GDP-740@2x.png

" target="_blank" class="embedly-card" rel="nofollow">https://www.currentmarketvaluation.com/images/

2021-08-12-BI-3-Mkt-to-GDP-740@2x.png

😂 Get that mask on you infidel! 😹

holy schmadoodle that's a big cut in GDP estimate. Market don't care.

+++++

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs economists lowered their tracking estimate of U.S. economic growth in the third quarter to 5.5% from 9% due to the impact of the Delta variant but raised their forecast for the fourth quarter and beyond.

In a note on Wednesday, the investment bank said the Delta variant was having a "somewhat" larger-than-expected effect on growth and inflation due to its hit to consumer spending and production.

"Spending on dining, travel, and some other services is likely to decline in August, though we expect the drop to be modest and brief," the economists wrote, adding that supply chain disruptions are also proving to be more prolonged.

agip wrote:

holy schmadoodle that's a big cut in GDP estimate. Market don't care.

+++++

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs economists lowered their tracking estimate of U.S. economic growth in the third quarter to 5.5% from 9% due to the impact of the Delta variant but raised their forecast for the fourth quarter and beyond.

In a note on Wednesday, the investment bank said the Delta variant was having a "somewhat" larger-than-expected effect on growth and inflation due to its hit to consumer spending and production.

"Spending on dining, travel, and some other services is likely to decline in August, though we expect the drop to be modest and brief," the economists wrote, adding that supply chain disruptions are also proving to be more prolonged.

A little slowing, in this case due to the expected impact of the delta variant, is almost seen as a good thing (market wise)) in that it may be seen by Powell and the Fed as a reason to delay cutting their bond purchases.

The meeting next week- Jackson Hole, Wyoming Symposium - for the Fed, should be closely watched, and may fuel some swings one way or the other.

I am not sure why anyone should care, since the Fed can never reduce their balance sheet. Fed speak exists to keep the confidence game going. So in that sense Jackson Hole matters. The debt can only be monetized, impossible to ever be paid back.

What were we talking about?