Very confusing Trade Policy for South Korea & Japan ?

Trump is not a deal maker. He is a deal breaker. Even breaking trade deals he made himself for North America after breaking the previous NAFTA.

 

The US had a FREE TRADE Agreement with South Korea. That means both sides agreed they would not tariff or restrict trade between them.

Also see KORUS FTA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Korea_Free_Trade_Agreement

OR see what the US says about the agreement before this was imposed. – https://www.cbp.gov/trade/free-trade-agreements/korea

Trump has now imposed a 25% tariff on South Korea.

Is there anyone in his admin that understands what they are doing ? What do you expect to gain when they are imposing no tariffs on you ?

South Korea holds 1.5% of all US debt. If they quit buying US debt, do you think Japan will step up it purchases of US debt ?

Just like the 25% tariff on Japan. Does ‘anyone’ in this admin know who is buying all this extra US debt that is being created ?

Japan holds more than $ 1 Trillion of US debt and the question is, who might buy the new $4 Trillion being created right now ?

If Japan just quit buying NEW US DEBT, it would be catastrophic for the US.

Somebody better start thinking as this could explode quite quickly.

All that fuss over birth right citizenship… REALLY ?

We have all herd the news on this, but we really have no good explanation for it.

I had always assumed it was a immigration issue.

Not so fast….

Could it be that Trump, who despises Obama so badly, has motivation here.

We should all remember the ‘birther’ comments he has either made, repeated or promoted to Obama.

Now considering all the BS with ‘Hunters Laptop’. this theory may not be so far off. IPSE DIXIT style.

If you remove birthright citizenship as a rule, just some more fake accusations on the citizenship of a mother in Hawaii and you are on a steam roll to wipe out everything Obama did in office.

Problem is, even some of our early leaders might also fall under that clause. That is why the rule was created in the first place.

Just a thought. Keep it in the back of your mind because as we have seen, there is nothing he won’t try.

But doesn’t that just make more sense than anything else.

Who is paying for the AI roll-out ? -YOU !

Yea yea yea…

One more topic we are all tired of… AI

Like it or not, it’s coming. It’s largest form that you may not be aware of is consumer tracking and profiling.

Yea, like it or not. And I will not dive into those implications as many of you either won’t understand or conceive that it has implications for you.

But all this computing power able to derive instant decisions from a vast database of information all require one thing. And keep in mind just how many competing factions there are in this field….

They need POWER. Yea electricity, and lots of it.

Problem is, not only do we not have the projected plans for projected increase of it,
we are shooting ourselves in the foot by taking away incentives for solar and wind to produce CHEAP POWER. And you are not building out anything to replace that with.
But even that was not enough to support the demand from AI super computers. And many of them.

So the future production needs are growing faster than plans for new power and at the same time, eliminating some of those planned expansions.

Well that means you will be faced with rapid (fast track) new power plant construction, which will cost 40% more than you currently pay. And you will have to give a tax incentive to get there.

There is no way around this current trajectory, especially if you remove the tax incentives for solar power. But is nearly the same without removal. Just a higher level of increased pricing even faster.

You should feel like you are getting a double whammy… cause you are. You just are not seeing it yet.

Wait till you see that in electric prices.

But, it’s on you if you do nothing. You will suffer for it.

I project you will start to see it in as short as 2 years, with a peak perhaps in 4 years or more. Without any regulation to this, the sky is the limit.

I am 100% solar at 2 addresses and the 3rd address is happening in a few months, but minimal now. That will be a savings in just connection fees of nearly $70 month to have it turned off, not to mention the over 2000 KWH at $0.17 per kwh of usage for 3 addresses.
That price may surely double in the heart of this.

Leaving the rest of you more to pay for the NEW AI power upgrades.
I am not alone in cutting that cord.

You are paying for AI in multiple ways since you sit on your hands and only complain after the fact. A bit to late.

When demand outstrips production, pricing always goes up. But you may be faced with blackouts as well. That is when you likely react.

Good luck with that. Fun Fun Fun.

 

Did I forget to mention the Cyber coin data centers that are already a problem ? They have to locate where large available generation capacity is and where high bandwidth data cables are.

AI centers are nothing different.

Drill Baby Drill continued…

US oil production is 203,000 bpd down from the all-time high reached during the week of December 6, 2024

47 doing his magic I guess.

Has he been lying ?
Or is it much more complicated than he can imagine ?

Talk is cheap. And we have a lot of that.

Were you buying what was FREE and plentiful ?

If you want $40 bl oil, you will have to do away with labor laws, immigration laws and perhaps US oil co’s.

Perhaps just seize the oil co’s and hire Mexicans to work the oil fields without OSHA.

 

Even Russia or Saudi Arabia can’t do it for that.

WTI @ 73 bl (up about $1 per day) and they are all waiting to see his new gulf war.

Measles for Weasels ? Do you have Brain Worms ?

Just an example of where this crap comes from.

No Kings ?

So, tis the day of thousands of peaceful protests.
We all hope they ALL remain peaceful.
Some will get unruly. Either from provocation or a few bad actors.

The real story hear is that 47 on his ‘birthday’ is having a military parade costing taxpayers 100 million dollars at the same time is cutting help for those less fortunate.

What a contrast. You just can not justify even thinking this is OK.

Did we buy a incorrect vision what what a democracy actually is ?

I guess that is up to you and your actions. But I have always been under the assumption this was everything that democracy stood against. Am I that wrong ?

A slow evolution of Putler’s laws ? It starts and ends with you ! Will you be proud of what you allow to happen to yourself ?

ipse dixit