Is Europe becoming uninvestable?

[Dalal.Holdings]

7 minutes ago, Charlie said:

Recently I wanted to test drive a Tesla and the sales people at the telephone said I had to bring a credit card with me.

I asked why. He said if I like the car I can pay 250 Euro upfront with the credit card and the rest later.

I am pretty sure Elon Musk is using Mungers Psychology of Human Misjudgment for impulsive car selling tactics.

That was probably the main reason Musk wanted to meet Munger.

 

Clueless. Elon met Munger numerous times, including early days of Tesla when Charlie told him he was wasting his time...

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-said-berkshire-hathaways-022921199.html

 

Quote

"I was at a lunch with Munger in 2009 where he told the whole table all the ways Tesla would fail," he said.

"Made me quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those reasons & that we would probably die, but it was worth trying anyway."

 

And this was Charlie much later once Tesla (and SpaceX) were proven successes:

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:50 PM by Dalal.Holdings

[Dalal.Holdings]

1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

If the AFD wins and Weiden would make Germany uninvestible, imo, it is relevant. She sometimes talks pretty smooth but in other times, she talks like Goebbels (see my link above). I really  don’t get why she want Germany to become dependent on Putin again. I think she is chasing for votes in East Germany, where the Putin crush is alive again. Go figure. I am old enough to have travelled the DDR on the 80‘s and there were a lot of people who were telling us (our outfits gave you away as a West German) and many really gave us an unsolicited opinion how much they liked the Russian occupants at that time (Russian soldiers were pretty present these days).

 

I suggest some should re- emigrate to Russia if they like it so much.

 

They said the same about Trump pre-2016 election. He sounds like Adolf. He will make U.S. markets sell off.

 

Stock market went way up right after he was elected (both in 2016 and 2024). 

 

It's great that AfD is rising because it at least shows the political pendulum is shifting to the right and increases the chances that the failed policies of the last decade+ in Germany will finally be abolished

[Dalal.Holdings]

1 hour ago, Charlie said:

AFD (Weidel) and "Die Linke" are against everything. That is the way they get votes.

I am not sure which role is Musks in this game.

Probably he wants that Germany decrease taxes that Tesla makes more profit

or he wants to weaken Germany with this AFD shit.

 

 

 

This is just really hilarious the people who think Elon cares about making a few extra bucks... Dude literally blew over $40B to buy an unprofitable social media platform called Twitter. He isn't doing this for money and he isn't doing it because he likes Putin.

 

He's going it because progressives have destroyed western countries: U.S. under Biden, Canada, UK, Germany, France, etc. He is pro free speech, merit, legal immigration, innovation, etc and this has been completely clear. Unlike Zuckerberg who swings any way the political winds blow, Elon has been highly consistent.

 

The proof is in the pudding: look at GDP gaps breaking out between USA vs Canada/Europe. Progressives have wrecked places they have been in charge of and Elon’s sole mission is to combat that.

Elon made sure USA would not become like Europe/Canada by helping Trump win. Now he’ll fight to save Europe from itself

Edited Sunday at 08:02 PM by Dalal.Holdings

[Dinar]

32 minutes ago, Dalal.Holdings said:

 

This is just really hilarious the people who think Elon cares about making a few extra bucks... Dude literally blew over $40B to buy an unprofitable social media platform called Twitter. He isn't doing this for money and he isn't doing it because he likes Putin.

 

He's going it because progressives have destroyed western countries: U.S. under Biden, Canada, UK, Germany, France, etc. He is pro free speech, merit, legal immigration, innovation, etc and this has been completely clear. Unlike Zuckerberg who swings any way the political winds blow, Elon has been highly consistent.

 

The proof is in the pudding: look at GDP gaps breaking out between USA vs Canada/Europe. Progressives have wrecked places they have been in charge of and Elon’s sole mission is to combat that.

Elon made sure USA would not become like Europe/Canada by helping Trump win. Now he’ll fight to save Europe from itself

100% agree.

[Dalal.Holdings]

Now this guy sounds like Goebbels, Stalin, and Mao rolled into one:

 

 

 

[Spekulatius]

3 hours ago, Dalal.Holdings said:

Now this guy sounds like Goebbels, Stalin, and Mao rolled into one:

 

 

 

Visengard 24is a dis-information channel.

Edited Monday at 03:30 AM by Spekulatius

[thowed]

On 1/12/2025 at 2:59 PM, james22 said:

 

1. And it's a little funny. Lighten up.

 

 

OK.  I don't mind a joke, but if you post something without comment, it's harder to know whether it's meant seriously or not.

 

On not reading good things about London, I don't know where you're based, but I'd suggest you're reading the wrong things.  It's very easy to read bad things about most countries in the world at the moment, but when you visit them, you tend to find that it's business as usual.  Sure we've got stupid politicians etc.  but if that was a problem I wouldn't invest anywhere...

[Dalal.Holdings]

27 minutes ago, thowed said:

 

OK.  I don't mind a joke, but if you post something without comment, it's harder to know whether it's meant seriously or not.

 

On not reading good things about London, I don't know where you're based, but I'd suggest you're reading the wrong things.  It's very easy to read bad things about most countries in the world at the moment, but when you visit them, you tend to find that it's business as usual.  Sure we've got stupid politicians etc.  but if that was a problem I wouldn't invest anywhere...

 

The problem is that when you look at objective data like GDP per capita, number of companies > $100B market cap started in last 50 years, etc, it does look like the UK and EU are in bad shape...

[james22]

 

4 hours ago, thowed said:

On not reading good things about London, I don't know where you're based, but I'd suggest you're reading the wrong things.

 

Aaand there's the problem.

 

Not joking: If you can't protect your daughters, why would I expect you'd protect my shareholder rights?

[Spekulatius]

57 minutes ago, james22 said:

 

 

Aaand there's the problem.

 

Not joking: If you can't protect your daughters, why would I expect you'd protect my shareholder rights?

Fallacy. There is more crime going on in the USA than in Europe. The US murder rate is roughly 5x higher than most countries in Europe. As for rapes, the US roughly comparable to Europe, but it’s very hard to compare because the reporting is so different. Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest incident rate of rapes of any country and it’s probably not because it’s not happening.

[Dalal.Holdings]

Does the average European even acknowledge there is a problem in Europe? Every time you bring up USA they say they have better work-life balance in Europe, better healthcare, less crime (supposedly), etc. 

 

But they all seem totally disconnected from reality which is:

 

 

And one day when they reap what they have sown and their social welfare gets cut and retirement ages raised due to harsh economic realities, they’ll riot in the streets. Until then, they will be oblivious and continue to go on about how much better life is in Europe than USA…

 

The first step in fixing the problem is acknowledging there is one and I’m afraid many Europeans just don’t understand what they are in store for if they continue on this path…

 

[cubsfan]

7 minutes ago, Dalal.Holdings said:

Does the average European even acknowledge there is a problem in Europe? Every time you bring up USA they say they have better work-life balance in Europe, better healthcare, less crime (supposedly), etc. 

 

But they all seem totally disconnected from reality which is:

 

 

And one day when they reap what they have sown and their social welfare gets cut and retirement ages raised due to harsh economic realities, they’ll riot in the streets. Until then, they will be oblivious and continue to go on about how much better life is in Europe than USA…

 

The first step in fixing the problem is acknowledging there is one and I’m afraid many Europeans just don’t understand what they are in store for if they continue on this path…

 

 

Political correctness and ideology helps them keep the blinders on.... we've seen it here in the USA, but at least the tide is turning.

[james22]

32 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

Fallacy. There is more crime going on in the USA than in Europe. The US murder rate is roughly 5x higher than most countries in Europe. As for rapes, the US roughly comparable to Europe, but it’s very hard to compare because the reporting is so different. Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest incident rate of rapes of any country and it’s probably not because it’s not happening.

 

Denial and deflection don't convince me my shareholder rights won't be trumped by whatever the prevailing ideology.

[Dalal.Holdings]

“Techno-colonialism”. This is absolutely bonkers…these people have destroyed their brains with crazed ideology

 

 

 

 

[Charlie]

The AFD (Weidel) wants Germany to leave the Euro and the EU.

This is absolute idiotic and would hurt Germany from an economic standpoint enormously.

 

Nobody wants to go into coalition with the AFD, because they are talking so much bullshit for so many years (vaccination, wearing a mask, boarder control etc).

The last ridiculous thing I have heard is that they are pro Bitcoin.

For anybody who wants more this is the program of the AFD:

https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzprogramm-englisch_web.pdf

 

In the end it doesn´t matter because CDU (Merz) will win and nobody wants something to do with the AFD:

https://dawum.de/Bundestag/INSA/2025-01-13/

 

One of the biggest problems Germany has is we have not enough young people and too many old people.

So immigrating able young people is a huge plus not a minus.

Germany is a rich, open and friendly country and we want to stay that way.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 07:38 AM by Charlie

[james22]

2 hours ago, Charlie said:

The AFD (Weidel) wants Germany to leave the Euro and the EU.

This is absolute idiotic and would hurt Germany from an economic standpoint enormously.

 

Nobody wants to go into coalition with the AFD, because they are talking so much bullshit for so many years (vaccination, wearing a mask, boarder control etc).

The last ridiculous thing I have heard is that they are pro Bitcoin.

For anybody who wants more this is the program of the AFD:

https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzprogramm-englisch_web.pdf

 

In the end it doesn´t matter because CDU (Merz) will win and nobody wants something to do with the AFD:

https://dawum.de/Bundestag/INSA/2025-01-13/

 

One of the biggest problems Germany has is we have not enough young people and too many old people.

So immigrating able young people is a huge plus not a minus.

Germany is a rich, open and friendly country and we want to stay that way.

 

 

Cheers!

 

100% disagree.

[Spekulatius]

4 hours ago, Charlie said:

The AFD (Weidel) wants Germany to leave the Euro and the EU.

This is absolute idiotic and would hurt Germany from an economic standpoint enormously.

 

Nobody wants to go into coalition with the AFD, because they are talking so much bullshit for so many years (vaccination, wearing a mask, boarder control etc).

The last ridiculous thing I have heard is that they are pro Bitcoin.

For anybody who wants more this is the program of the AFD:

https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzprogramm-englisch_web.pdf

 

In the end it doesn´t matter because CDU (Merz) will win and nobody wants something to do with the AFD:

https://dawum.de/Bundestag/INSA/2025-01-13/

 

One of the biggest problems Germany has is we have not enough young people and too many old people.

So immigrating able young people is a huge plus not a minus.

Germany is a rich, open and friendly country and we want to stay that way.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only that Weidel talks about tearing down all the windmills (which would cost close to $80B Euro by some estimates) and starting up Nordstream II. I’d guess the idea is to go back to Russian gas and become Putin’s bitch.

 

Then the whole revisionist history - she just claimed that the Nazis were socialists and communists. Ne, I know that the National socialist party had socialism in their name, but it’s clear they were anything but. The Nazis threw socialist in jail, plain and simple. But what can you expect from a party that has Nazi affiliations. Quite frankly, a lot of those folks are less deserving of the German citizenship than some of the immigrants they want to get rid off. Maybe offer them a one way ticket and re- migration to Russia, since they love it so much.

[thowed]

14 hours ago, james22 said:

 

 

Aaand there's the problem.

 

Not joking: If you can't protect your daughters, why would I expect you'd protect my shareholder rights?

 

We're both civil people so I think we're going to have to agree to disagree - I don't think we're going to change each other's minds on the subject. 

 

As for your statement, I would 'invert' and say - all the murders in schools with assault rifles in the US isn't exactly protecting daughters.

 

Thanks @Spekulatius for talking some sense, but this is all too much like the Politics thread of old, so I'm out.

[Dalal.Holdings]

It’s very easy to cast blame on AfD for every little thing they say or anyone associated with them with extreme views. Similar to Trump in 2016.

 

The problem is that no one in the establishment questions the extremists on the left: the people who tried to shut down Tesla’s Berlin factory, the Greta Thunbergs, and the “degrowth people” in Europe. In many ways, these people have been given platforms by politicians and mainstream media in Europe. And so the leftists were in many ways left in the driver’s seat similar to a state like California…and now you have the result you’d expect in Europe: poor or no growth, high debt and entitlements, immigrants causing social and political strains.

 

- There are legitimate questions about Windmills, their lifetime maintenance costs, environmental impacts, etc (unlike solar).

 

- There are legitimate questions about immigration, especially uncontrolled and when it overwhelms small towns.

 

- There are legitimate questions about whether Ukraine’s war should be funded indefinitely or whether we should face reality (as they are losing).

 

- There are legitimate questions about climate regulations (like the absurd deforestation rule) and regulations in general that strangle growth.

 

 

[Charlie]

The next government CDU is not left. It is middle/right.

[Dinar]

6 hours ago, Charlie said:

The AFD (Weidel) wants Germany to leave the Euro and the EU.

This is absolute idiotic and would hurt Germany from an economic standpoint enormously.

 

Nobody wants to go into coalition with the AFD, because they are talking so much bullshit for so many years (vaccination, wearing a mask, boarder control etc).

The last ridiculous thing I have heard is that they are pro Bitcoin.

For anybody who wants more this is the program of the AFD:

https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzprogramm-englisch_web.pdf

 

In the end it doesn´t matter because CDU (Merz) will win and nobody wants something to do with the AFD:

https://dawum.de/Bundestag/INSA/2025-01-13/

 

One of the biggest problems Germany has is we have not enough young people and too many old people.

So immigrating able young people is a huge plus not a minus.

Germany is a rich, open and friendly country and we want to stay that way.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need more people?  Encourage Germans to have kids.  If you take in 10MM Syrians/Turks/Pakistanis/Egyptians/Africans, you will turn the country into the disaster that these countries are.  I can understand letting Poles in, may be Ukrainians or a few Russians, but millions of Arabs/Africans/Pakistanis - that's insanity.  

[james22]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Then the whole revisionist history - she just claimed that the Nazis were socialists and communists. Ne, I know that the National socialist party had socialism in their name, but it’s clear they were anything but. The Nazis threw socialist in jail, plain and simple. But what can you expect from a party that has Nazi affiliations.

 

Hitler always described himself as a man of the Left. He and his cohorts took over the German Workers’ Party, which was uniformly and correctly regarded as left-wing. They renamed it the National Socialist Party. Still left-wing, even more so.

 

The Nazi regime vastly expanded the power of government–to put it mildly–raised taxes, essentially took over private industry from the top down, and, throughout World War II, assured Germans that they would have “real socialism” once the war was over.

 

Of course the Nazis battled the Communists in the streets in the 1930s; that was like the Crips and the Bloods fighting over turf. Bitter enemies who are in all respects relevant to outsiders, the same. And they soon became allies.

 

The great public relations coup of the Western Left was its success in branding both the Nazis and Italy’s Fascists as “right-wing.” In fact, they were big government–make that huge government–socialists: the opposite of Western conservatism.

 

Hitler would have been astonished by the claim that he was somehow a free-market, limited government conservative. By any sane definition–including his own–he was a left-winger.

 

Historically, two varieties of socialism have actually existed: national socialism (Germany and Hitler, with a number of countries in Europe and Latin America following suit) and international socialism (Marx, Lenin and the USSR). International socialism didn’t last long. Stalin abandoned it with his “socialism in one country” mantra in the 1930s, and when his fellow socialist and ally Hitler invaded, defense of the Soviet Union became the Great Patriotic War. So, for practical purposes, there is only one kind of socialism: national socialism. Nazism, or Fascism.

 

These are far-left ideologies, and the claim that they have anything to do with the right, with conservatism, is nothing but a propaganda coup on the part of Western leftists, who have successfully dodged responsibility for those who carried their ideologies to their logical conclusions.

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/01/adolf-hitler-communist.php

 

[cubsfan]

1 hour ago, Dinar said:

You need more people?  Encourage Germans to have kids.  If you take in 10MM Syrians/Turks/Pakistanis/Egyptians/Africans, you will turn the country into the disaster that these countries are.  I can understand letting Poles in, may be Ukrainians or a few Russians, but millions of Arabs/Africans/Pakistanis - that's insanity.  

 

This - destroying your culture by large scale immigration of young men that will not respect your culture is disastrous. You are ignoring your duty to your citizens with uncontrolled immigration. 

 

You are simply changing your country forever.

Edited Tuesday at 04:17 PM by cubsfan

[frommi]

As a german I totally agree with what Charlie has written. And its not the first time immigration would help us. After world war II, lots of turkish and italian people came to germany. They were called "Gastarbeiter" / guest workers. That all contributed to the "Wirtschaftswunder". 

[fareastwarriors]

 

FT: Reversal of fortunes: Europe’s thriving south and stagnant north