Luke

Western countries are already so involved, the US military but also EU military is side by side with Ukraine and providing intelligence services, training the troops, and giving them more and more weapons...its only a matter of time until the nuclear blast will annihilate the Ukrainian front lines

@ValueArb is probably ready to spend hundreds of billions more and push for deploying Nato/US troops and go for total war against Russia (and probably China too), which the US can do if they want (I hope @ValueArb will fight too)! Some larger german politicians are already pushing for nato troop deployment...

It's never as simple as "Putin is the aggressor end of story". The economic damage largely comes from our fault of sanctions and now sponsoring billions of dollars to Ukraine in a War they can't win and a war where hundreds of thousands of men will die due to our weapons. If Selensky wants to fight, let him fight but don't send him more weapons. The pope said it, its time to be the bigger man and start negotiating and getting out the best for his people, which is NOT continuing this fight for more years, more deaths, and the same outcome with a worse negotiation position down the road. They will get a peace treaty, give Russia the eastern regions of which many DO want to be a part of Russia and were victims of discrimination, agree to no training with US troops, no nato training, new elections, and the war is over and they can start repairing their country. The other choice is war until the last man standing for Ukraine and then total collapse for the country after most young men are dead. Even worse, we might get drawn into this war and have to send our men too or worse, face nuclear attacks with further escalation. I don't think the citizens of European countries want war with russia (except for some crazy leaders and some military/war fans) The united states of Europe was never admirable nor possible and every European country has smaller or very much larger different political interests that can not be represented by Brussel. So regarding European politics, there should be a lot more political power in the nations, a reduction in the membership states to the few countries that have the highest similar goals and comparable quality of life (Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, UK, Ireland (under the condition of tax haven removal)) ...german workers suffered because of Europe migration, the eastern countries accept the cheapest wages and pushed down the wages and quality of life for the locals. Countries should do politics based on their interest and not based on global geopolitical planning by US/Nato and we should not join the blockbuilding and China/Russia hostility

That nobody in europe or the west even questions 1% of motives of our countries and that our countries also couldnt be transparent is quite shocking, everybody takes what our governments say for 100% face value and Putin is just Darth Vader. Simple story...

You guys should be hired as generals!! If only Putin had you in his team!! But no, he has these dumb know nothing russians fighting for him... We dont know whats going on behind the scenes, one of the most supervised areas, nord stream pipeline, got blown up without any of us knowing what happened. Intelligence agencies probably know but the public wont. Was it so obvious that Ukraine would get hundreds of billions of weapons, full access to intelligence information etc considering they are a country with very high corruption? Probably not. And again, Putin has 1000x the information available that we do and it certainly wasnt as easy as "he didnt know, was just dumb and now he has the problem hehe"

Who knows what his plans and thoughts were. He certainly achieved taking over the regions. Find it a bit odd to take youtubers serious who claim to debunk Putin and how dumb he is, little informed etc all straight out of their mothers basement

At this point it's ridiculous. Youtubers are telling us now that they know what's wrong with Putin and that Putin has no control and correct information and he debunked him now and I can watch this information straight from my couch?

Why would a Youtuber know more about the situation in Ukraine/Russia than the head of a 2T economy and developed nation with international alliances with China etc that all (incl. Russia) have extensive secret service operations and information streams that are vastly superior to Lazer Pig?

HODL.

I am doing the same, I am borrowing yen to buy Japanese stocks that have global revenues. Japan's debt is huge, they have little room to up interest rates, and their society is collapsing because the Japanese arent getting enough kids and don't want poor migrants in their country. Over the longterm, the yen will only go down but Nintendo, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sony, etc will all continue to make money and worst case just move headquarters. So going short the yen for 1.5% interest while owning assets that trade at 10-20x earnings is a very good longterm strategy as long as you wont get margin called down the road. That said, the Yen, Japanese stocks trade was better when buffett loaded up cause lots of stuff has run up but I still see moderate value for a starter position. In Europe we can not do carry trades with the yen unfortunately, otherwise I would borrow yen, convert it into USD and buy stocks with that no problem, EVEN if the yen appreciates a bit against USD its a good longterm bet. @Saluki Please don't pay 10%+ margin rates, just move your portfolio to interactive brokers and stop making overpriced brokers rich. Take advantage of IBKR margin rates. I can send you a friend invite.

Haha well said, sometimes I go fishing in the nature reserve around the corner, and I pay 30 USD a year for a license, it's fucking free and absolutely stunning when the sun goes down, just me and nature, the silence, some good pikes... Right now the opportunity set in the US and West is different than in the 70s, GDP is growing slower, the West faces birthrate crises, the market is expensive and more efficient, housing is comparably more expensive, the market has become more concentrated...nonetheless, the ones who want to find opportunities will find them.

Our investment gains are someone else's spending. There has to be a mass consumer class for investors to get rich on Starbucks, Apple, and Nintendo investments. If everybody becomes a Ramsey hustler and saver, then one won't have spectacular gains. Yes, you can get rich if you save and invest your money but this depends on circumstances. If you went to a good university, studied something like engineering, accounting, etc, then are able to lay things aside while maintaining a reasonable quality of life with your family->you will make reasonable money over your life. On the other hand, if you come from a family with poor educational background, live in a bad neighborhood, local state school that has low quality, etc, your odds are really not in your favor, and sure, you could pull yourself up and still make a living but over the last 30-40 years society in the west became a lot more gentrified...many people are left behind, family background and networking is more and more a predictor of your financial future then it was in the 60-70s. Corporate America has been and is shifted against the normie worker and politics play a role here for what its worth.

Everybody can become a billionaire!

I think that 95% of the board thinks that getting wealthy is as easy as you described (janitor can make it to 8m), people who are not wealthy just spend their money on useless junk and its their fault! Why does this thread even exist? To reconfirm your opinions and circle jerk on the dumb fucks that cant save? xD

Sorry, since when is an "engineer" somehow representable for the average worker? 8m net worth for a janitor? I am jealous of your worldview, people just need to buckle up, system works wonderful and you only need to stop buying your Starbucks coffee! Easy!

Certainly, this board is not representative of the average worker because they don't have the time to read 10ks or do not have the education to do so, they have kids at a reasonable healthy age of 25-30, and probably mommy stays home for a while maybe, then if they are lucky and have some capital they can buy a house otherwise you will just be renting forever looking at rental prices for a family of 4-5...and then you spend some money with your kids eating out, going into parks or whatever, buying little jonny lego toys and then the salary is gone, surprise!

Is there that much disposable income for the bottom 80% to save? I mean, if you look at the median salary of 60k USD a year, housing prices, rent prices, health insurance and possible medication/illness expenses, basic living expenses, some fun activity with family, etc? If they take out a mortgage now the interest is insane too so there is even less possibility to save anything. Is it that complicated to understand that salaries are just not high enough to save significant amounts after living a reasonable lifestyle with the median salary? GDP per capita, GDP per person etc are all meaningless numbers. What matters is which cashflow reaches the worker and not how much the rentier class makes with increasing rents, charging absurd amounts for health insurance, reshuffling homes at higher prices etc that all gets counted as GDP but is unproductive income

Thanks for sharing!! Love the soundtrack...great composing...its on the same level as great classical composers....

Pretty cool clips, relevant for met coal understanding. Fascinating process.

For some time now, one of the most successful tactics of the ruling class has been responsibilization. Each individual member of the subordinate class is encouraged into feeling that their poverty, lack of opportunities, or unemployment, is their fault and their fault alone. Individuals will blame themselves rather than social structures, which in any case they have been induced into believing do not really exist (they are just excuses, called upon by the weak). What David Smail calls ‘magical voluntarism’ – the belief that it is within every individual’s power to make themselves whatever they want to be – is the dominant ideology and unofficial religion of contemporary capitalist society, pushed by reality TV ‘experts’ and business gurus as much as by politicians. Magical voluntarism is both an effect and a cause of the currently historically low level of class consciousness. It is the flipside of depression – whose underlying conviction is that we are all uniquely responsible for our own misery and therefore deserve it. A particularly vicious double bind is imposed on the long-term unemployed in the UK now: a population that has all its life been sent the message that it is good for nothing is simultaneously told that it can do anything it wants to do. We must understand the fatalistic submission of the UK’s population to austerity as the consequence of a deliberately cultivated depression. This depression is manifested in the acceptance that things will get worse (for all but a small elite), that we are lucky to have a job at all (so we shouldn’t expect wages to keep pace with inflation), that we cannot afford the collective provision of the welfare state. Collective depression is the result of the ruling class project of resubordination. For some time now, we have increasingly accepted the idea that we are not the kind of people who can act. This isn’t a failure of will any more than an individual depressed person can ‘snap themselves out of it’ by ‘pulling their socks up’. The rebuilding of class consciousness is a formidable task indeed, one that cannot be achieved by calling upon ready-made solutions – but, in spite of what our collective depression tells us, it can be done. Inventing new forms of political involvement, reviving institutions that have become decadent, converting privatised disaffection into politicised anger: all of this can happen, and when it does, who knows what is possible?

I saw that too...crazy times

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/20/middleeast/icc-israel-hamas-arrest-warrant-war-crimes-intl/index.html EXCLUSIVE: ICC seeks arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes over October 7 attack and Gaza war

Well, I think they see what a mistake it was to give real estate developers that much market freedom, and future regulation will prevent this situation from occurring again. For now, something has to be done and I agree that the government can use the situation and make the best out of it. Russia has deep cultural ties with China, they share a huge border and there are countries in China with many Russian-speaking people that have close ties to Russia. It is not in China's Interest to join Washington's sanction games and hostility towards Russia so IMO they are doing just what's fine for China.

How do you infer unequal distribution of wealth? Looks like they are gonna make social housing out of it but financing and further detail not revealed yet. This sounds good to me so far and sensible.

Their previous track record before Berkshire was insane. https://blog.umd.edu/davidkass/2021/08/27/how-ted-weschler-turned-70000-into-264-million-in-a-retirement-account/ Right now it does seem kind of mehh indeed.