Marco Van Basten

Bought cpac the other day.

Lousy schools that don't teach anything, abolition of trade/vocational school, disdain for manual labor - everyone should go to college at taxpayer's expense to get a degree in cultural preservation rather than acquire useful skills (plumbing, electric, carpentry, masonry, etc...) government waste that leads to higher taxes, allowing criminals not to be punished, welfare that allows women to have kids out of wedlock - kids grow up without fathers and role models, not seeing anyone who works for a living.

I wasn't clear. I would be for negative income tax on the first say 20-50K of a person's income. Above that, I agree that we need an actual income. In terms of government, yes we need to cut spending, and VAT is probably a much better way than income tax.

Oh, I agree, the worst damage to the poor are done by progressive agenda. I would vote for a negative income tax credit in a heartbeat.

I would be really careful with the statistics here. I cannot speak for Canadian data, but the US date regarding the bottom 50% strikes me as absurdly incorrect. I think a great deal of people in the bottom half of the income distribution in the US get paid in cash and hide a very large % of their income from the tax authorities. I live in NYC, and we have hundreds of thousands of workers where their cash income = 20-50% of their reported income, and probably tens of thousands if not more where cash income is in excess of 100% of their reported income. In the suburbs of NYC, numerous tradesmen get paid in cash - plumbers, carpenters, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and the list goes on.

You do realize that the international law is absurd? After all, what it calls a war crime is the way wars have been fought for millennia. When everything is a war crime, nothing is. Also, as far as I know, international law is not a concept that exists in the US. If something I do is considered a capital offense in Zimbabwe, it is irrelevant as far as the US court is concerned unless it is considered a crime in the US as well.

Meanwhile, despite his rhetoric, ourkid8 is coming to nyc and not going to Iran to help

You made a statement, I asked you to back it up and you are upset? As for USA being authoritarian for twenty years, may I remind you that comrade Obama forced citizens to buy health insurance? People being forced to vaccinate their kids against covid? People being forced to wear masks on the beach and in parks six years ago? Forcing women to accommodate men in their bathrooms? Joe Biden opening the borders? State of NJ in 1975 Supreme Court decision that mandated that every town build housing for the poor? 9 authoritarians in the room, kind of like Soviet or Chinese standing politburo.

How many people have moved to us from Canada as a percentage of the population in the last twenty years? And from us to Canada? I keep hearing how amazing migration to Canada is but I don’t see any facts. Can you please provide facts for your opinion? Cause u know a dozen people that moved Canada to us and not a single person who moved from us to Canada?

I would like to make an observation: the person who probably knows and understands the situation the best, says the least. It's a good thing to keep in mind in all areas of life....

There might be a number of deficit lowering provisions in the big beautiful bill that have not had a chance to impact the budget deficit yet. Cuts to the food stamp program come to mind for instance, another is the crackdown on Medicaid for able bodied adults. According to an article in the Yale Daily News, the endowment tax is only going into effect this July. So while it is not a meaningful amount - say $3-10bn per annum in increased taxes, the more interesting question is are there other taxes and spending cuts that did not go into effect in July of 2025, but were delayed? If so, what will be the impact on the deficit. Before the Iran war, the deficit has been coming down in absolute dollars, and even more so as a % of GDP. If you have Medicaid, food stamps & other social services cuts + endowment tax increases, you could see the deficit cut by another $100-200bn per annum. So down from $1.8 trillion or 6.4% of GDP in fiscal 2024, and adjusting for timing shifts, it was $1.905 trillion according to Peter Peterson foundation. In fiscal 2025, it was $1.8 trillion or 5.9% of GDP, and in the calendar 2025, it fell to $1.7 trillion. Assuming that the Iran was is over in a month, and say $200bn of cuts & tax increases kick in from Big Beautiful Bill, the deficit shrinks to $1.5 trlllion, stick too high, but under 4.7% of GDP based on 2027 forecasts.

Why do you think we are facing stagflation? Yes, healthcare costs are continuing to rise sharply, but in NYC, a hospital chain is trying to replace radiologists with AI which should help costs, meanwhile housing costs seem to be coming down around the country or flat, with the exception the NYC metropolitan area. 300,000 federal employees have been fired by Trump, is that not good for price stability? Until the Iran war started, budget deficit seemed to be coming down by several hundred billion dollars, that also tends to be good for price stability.

And I asked you to state what is wrong with hanging terrorists? The Knesset website, from which I pulled the bill earlier today is giving me an error message. I will check it again tomorrow, and if it working, post it.

Read the bill and then find the place that says does not apply to Jews. I will give you a hint, you won’t find it. Again, what’s wrong with hanging terrorists?

Actually, trump has an option to escalate meaningfully. It is to stop Iranian crude from leaving Hormuz the same way that Iran is stopping everyone else.

Actually, the article is a bald faced lie. If you bother to read the bill rather than the propaganda that FT & ourkid8 are putting out, you will see that there is nothing in the bill that prevents Jews who commit terrorist acts from being subject to the death penalty. As an aside, what is wrong with hanging murderers?

Spek, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon and the deaths of Americans in Iraq don't count? Aside from that, I don't know about you, but the nuclear bomb in the hands of the current Iranian regime would be enough for me.

I am probably misunderstanding the situation, but why can't the US just block Iranian oil exports without seizing the island?

Well, immigration reduces wages and increases housing costs, so reduced immigration is beneficial for the working class. Obviously there are exceptions, if we have a shortage of doctors because medical schools produce the same number of doctors as they did 100 years ago, then the solution is both letting doctors immigrate and to open more medical schools.

@investmd, How has Rochon performed versus S&P over the last 5, 10, 15 and 20 and 25 years? What has driven his performance? Why do you think that there will be a reversion to the mean in earnings growth and multiples in the S&P? If Mr Rochon talks about creating a museum of great companies, then why isn't Moody/SPGI in his museum, or GE/Safran in it, or Sartorius Stadim Biotech? or VMC/MLM? May be I missed it, but is Fairfax one of his positions? If not, why not? To be clear, I don't know much about Mr Rochon, and he seems like a thoughtful person, but I don't buy into the notion of mean reversion. Mean reversion assumes perfect competition, and many sectors seem to be immune from new entrants and are oligopolies as it is - MLM/VMC, SPGI/MCO, et all

There is only one reason to have enriched uranium, and that's for a nuclear bomb. As for starting wars, Iranian government started plenty of wars throughout history. The only reason that they have not behaved as Iran historically has is because Iran has been weak for the past century. This current government blew up Israeli embassy and a Jewish center in Argentina, created Hezbollah in Lebanon which killed hundreds of Americans, backed Shiite militias that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq, backed Houthis in Yemen, and backed Assad who killed tens of thousands of people in Syria. Oh, and tens of thousands of its own people. But yes, the current government is really peaceful.... And the 400 pounds of enriched uranium and ballistic missiles that can hit London and Paris are needed to solve the water crisis in Teheran! Ayatollah Homeini stated that it is worth to sacrifice the lives of 200 million Moslems to wipe out the state of Israel, peaceful regime indeed! This peaceful regime took Americans hostage in 1979!

This is such garbage. Gold was at a generational bottom 30 years ago. Now take a look at a 60 year chart. I can cherry pick data too: look at gold from 1979 till today vs S&P 500.

Look, it is very unfortunate that millions of Iranians that abhor this regime are suffering. It is terrible that millions of people outside Iran are suffering. It is terrible that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese that have no affection for Hezbollah are suffering. I agree that it would be wonderful for the war to end, provided that Iran's march to nukes was stopped, ideally permanently. It would be nice to also have a government that cares at least somewhat for the population in Iran. I just think that the list of demands listed by Iran is laughable.

Dude what are you smoking? Are you high?

Incredible place, was there in 2012. It is somewhat hilly, like Lisbon so prepare for quite a bit of walking, but a lovely town. Also, Coimbra, Evora, Batalha are all great.