Stone, what is your opinion of the Mar A Largo accord? It seems to be a clever new scheme to deal with debt!
Steve
President Donald Trump’s aggressive plans to shake up how the US trades with the rest of the world have fueled speculation about the potential for a grand multinational bargain that would deliberately weaken the dollar — helping American exporters compete with rivals such as China and Japan.
So, what would a ‘Mar-a-Lago Accord’ attempt to accomplish?
The rough concept is this: Trump has promised to deliver a golden age that will include a renaissance for American manufacturing and exports. He also has longstanding concerns about the size of the US trade deficit, which hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2024, characterizing it as effectively a transfer of wealth abroad.
The trouble is, the dollar’s exchange rate has been historically strong, undermining US competitiveness by making imports relatively cheaper. Indeed, some analysts view the dollar today as overvalued based on economic models that look at things such as the domestic purchasing power of a currency. This overvaluation, and its effects, means Washington has an incentive to reach some kind of deal with other nations that would address the currency strength.
Here’s what I think
So, the short answer to your question is that I doubt much of any of it can be implemented under the current set of circumstances. Moreover, most of it is just wishful thinking on the part of the Trump regime as I will explain now.
The USG is much more indebted than during the Plaza Accord in 1985
By forcing foreign institutions and nations to swap their current Treasury holdings for some sort of discounted zero coupon bonds with an extended duration would ultimately prove counterproductive.
Why?
First, it would immediately reduce the attractiveness of Treasury securities and existing foreign holders would be less likely to buy any in the future. Moreover, this would create more uncertainty surrounding the entire Treasury market. It’s even difficult to figure out who owns what. By function, investors would begin to demand larger risk premiums for holding USTs. That means higher yields.
Second, by forcing the dollar lower in the international markets, foreigners and domestic investors alike would be less likely to want to own US Treasuries.
Part of the allure of owning Treasuries is based on the strong dollar. The strong dollar in which the Treasuries are denominated provides a huge incentive for investors to want to own the Treasuries and hold them over time.
The USG cannot have it both ways
The US Government needs a strong dollar if it wishes to maintain the USD as a global reserve. And in order for the USG to maintain the USD as the global reserve, the US economy must, by function, maintain trade deficits to flood the world with the required dollars.
I often refer to the Triffin Paradox in this regard.
This paradox was identified in the 1960s by Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin. He noted that a country whose currency is the global reserve currency must somehow supply the world with its currency in order to fulfill world demand for these FX reserves. This supply function is nominally accomplished by international trade, with the country holding reserve currency status being required to run an inevitable trade deficit.
Thus, I find it virtually impossible for the Trump regime to implement the objectives of this “Mar-A-Lago” accord under the present monetary and financial system constraints.
The US is stuck in a self-sustaining loop
Indeed, the US government is stuck in what I would consider a self-sustaining loop.
1) It needs a strong dollar as the amount of Treasuries in circulation has greatly increased.
2) But, the strong dollar causes large trade deficits.
3) The US Government wishes to maintain the US dollar as the global reserve, thus it needs to maintain these trade deficits, so that the dollar can be spread to all four corners of the world.
4) Though the USG is desperate to lower its total interest outlays, I do not see how it can do so under current circumstances without creating a lot of investor angst. Weakening the dollar will ultimately drive up interest costs and domestic inflation.
5) The US trade deficits are now semi-permanent and structural, since much its manufacturing capacity has been offshored. Moreover, higher wages and relatively stringent domestic regulations make reshoring a tougher proposition. Weakening the dollar would have a blunted impact and would drive up price inflation for consumers as they would still need to buy foreign made goods.
It all fits together like pieces in a Tetris and the propositions the Trump regime proposes don’t fit together in the aggregate.
Trump says ‘no room left’ for Canada, Mexico to avert tariffs
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said there was no chance for Mexico or Canada to avert the tariffs that he promised to impose starting Tuesday.
March 3, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis
“No room left for Mexico or Canada,” Trump said on Monday when asked about whether Canada and Mexico could avert tariffs by reaching a deal on curbing fentanyl flows into the United States.
I can’t believe how cheap Pt is relative to Au. This is an historic low ratio. It’s easy to trade one off of another, but Platinum has been historically cheap versus gold for over four years now.
It just goes to show how much of an impact industrial offtake matters to precious metals. Platinum is primarily used for diesel catalytic converters. I very rarely hear anyone buying Platinum as a store of wealth or monetary equivalent.
At this rate, platinum memberships will mean less than gold memberships.
With the crypto craze, regular traders seem to forget actual physcial metals. Besides miners, any platinum investment recommendations?
Not with platinum. Other than it being priced at a small fraction to Au, there’s no compelling reason to want to really own it. Maybe Trump will say we need a stockpile of Pt.😀
I am not a proponent of owning PMs with high levels of industrial offtake, which is why I have traditionally only recommended gold and not silver. I definitely didn’t like the prospects of Pt and Pd, except with Pts discount to Au. But that discount keeps getting larger and that’s not enough of a value proposition for me.
Mining Pt is expensive and with its price so low, miners aren’t making any money. Even with gold expensive, gold miners struggle.
I have only recommended owning physical Au as 1 oz gold eagles for Americans and Maple leafs for Canadians
I have several million in equity in my rental properties that are scattered among at least six LLCs. Before this announcement, I was under penalty of law to report all of the beneficial ownership stakes in my LLCs to the US Treasury. Even though my llc’s were domestic corporations, meaning domestic to the state of registration, they were shielded from Federal intrusion. This BOI rule was a Biden regime regulation. All of my previously private information was on tap to being funneled to the DHS and IRS.
The suspension of this reporting requirement is probably one of the top five most important decisions Trump has made during his presidency. I don’t care if he diddles children, since I assume all global leaders do, but this is definitely a home run!
Trump praises Treasury Department’s move to suspend enforcement of BOI requirements
‘This is a victory for common sense,’ said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
https://www.foxbusiness.com/small-business/trump-praises-treasury-departments-move-suspend-enforcement-boi-requirements.amp
That is a huge good move by the Trump administration. The feature of this BOI reporting that really pissed me off is that this specifically targeted small businesses. Businesses that grossed more than 5 million were exempt from this requirement. I was also annoyed by the heavy penalties for noncompliance.
I don’t care if Trump is a Nazi or Satan incarnate. He is really doing good things for hardworking people in the USA.
Regardless of Trump’s motives, I have to give him credit. He’s doing a lot for the average American. That’s why the Democrats are in such a tailspin. Trump is accomplishing so much in such a short time. His programs are so popular with both Republicans and Independents. Even some Democrats I talk to outside the beltway are slowly admitting it as well.
Remember the joke about insulting drunken sailors! Same with the Nazi’s.
Dollar Bears Seize on Notion of Crumbling US Exceptionalism
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s tariff threats once again lifted the dollar last week, but a growing group of investors is betting against the greenback amid signs the US economy is cooling and on concern a trade war will weaken it further.
The expanding chorus of greenback bears includes asset managers Invesco and Columbia Threadneedle and hedge fund Mount Lucas Management. On Wall Street, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale are warning clients that going long the dollar is an overcrowded trade that may not hold up.
They’re looking past the daily gyrations sparked by tariff announcements, and as they see it, the narrative around the greenback is only darkening. Instead of deriving support from the prospect that import levies could reignite inflation and keep interest rates elevated, there’s now concern that all the uncertainty around tariffs risks undermining an economy that already shows signs of cooling.
The result is that market expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts have intensified, diminishing the greenback’s appeal. And the aura of US economic exceptionalism that underpinned the dollar’s 7.1% surge last quarter is dimming as investors ponder Trump’s domestic and foreign policies, that include efforts to slash federal expenses and broke a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
“I don’t think he can send the dollar much higher, because it’s really expensive,” said Kit Juckes, head of currency strategy at SocGen in London. “But can he send it lower? He absolutely can, if he damages the US economy.”
Market Peril
The world’s primary reserve currency is now almost 2% below the post-election peak it reached before Trump’s inauguration, amid a risk-on wave that also boosted stocks and Treasury yields.
Last week drove home the peril of going short the dollar in the current environment. The greenback surged on Thursday, paring its February decline, after Trump said that 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada would take effect March 4. He also said he would impose an additional 10% tax on Chinese imports.
The US currency extended gains on Friday in the aftermath of a heated exchange between President Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, leading to the collapse of a peace agreement with Russia and a potential deal on critical minerals. In an interview after the Oval Office bustup, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reiterated that tariffs are likely to generate substantial revenue.
Fading Enthusiasm
Headlines on tariffs have tended to help the dollar because generally speaking they make imports more costly, potentially hurting demand for those goods and reducing the need for the currencies to buy them.
At the same time, investors got a reminder last week of the headwinds the economy is facing, as pending home sales slumped to a record low and jobless claims rose to the highest this year, partly due to job-cut announcements at federal agencies.
It’s that backdrop that has bears convinced they’re leaning in the right direction.
“For a period of time the market priced only the positive side” of the administration’s policies, said David Aspell, co-chief investment officer at Mount Lucas, which has $1.7 billion under management. “You also need to fully price things that they’re trying to do that are going to be growth-negative.”
The fund is short the dollar versus peers including the pound and the Mexican peso as the post-election enthusiasm over US growth fades.
Invesco, meanwhile, flipped to underweight the dollar from overweight a few weeks ago on better-than-forecast data out of Europe.
At Columbia Threadneedle, Ed Al-Hussainy says he’s been shorting the dollar against emerging-market currencies since December. When bullish-dollar positioning increased after the Fed signaled it would slow its easing, his thought was that he may not be able to get much more out of the trade. The rates strategist said he plans to keep the short position for at least six months.
The US currency’s pullback from its recent peak is reminding Morgan Stanley strategists of the start of Trump’s first term in 2017. Back then, the currency slumped after he took office, reversing a rally that followed his November 2016 election win.
Bonds Too
The shift in sentiment is rippling through the Treasury market too. Traders have driven two-year yields to the lowest since October as expectations build for deeper Fed easing.
A break lower in yields on additional signs of economic weakness is “the dollar bear case,” said George Catrambone, head of fixed income at DWS Americas. “For a meaningful decline in the dollar you need to see the market price in more cuts, but it will ultimately also depend on what other central banks are doing.”
For now, traders see around nearly 0.70 percentage points of Fed rate reductions by year-end, compared with about 0.85 percentage points for the European Central Bank.
That differential helps explain why the market, overall, still has a bias toward greenback strength. In futures, for example, speculators such as hedge funds are still leaning toward dollar gains even after trimming bullish bets to the lowest since late October.
But the great unknown, of course, is how tariffs will play out.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists expect more dollar gains should sweeping levies ultimately come to pass, and they said in a Wednesday note that the market was underpricing that risk. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley, argued last week that the dollar’s major peers have become less sensitive to tariff announcements in recent weeks, which could extend the dollar’s slide.
Investors, for their part, don’t seem to see tariff-fueled turbulence ending any time soon.
“Volatility is likely to increase, but it is not clear to me that the US dollar comes out winning,” said Alessio de Longis at Invesco.
Bessent Says He Sees Inflation Reaching Fed’s 2% Target Quickly
(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he’s confident US consumer price increases will slow over the course of the year after a poll suggested Americans want President Donald Trump to focus more on bringing down inflation.
Bessent defended Trump’s economic plans on CBS News’ Face the Nation, saying the president is seeking “a holistic approach that there will be tariffs, there will be cuts deregulation, there will be cheaper energy” over time.
He cited falling US home mortgage rates and a drop in yields on 10-year Treasuries — the bond “I am focused on” — as signals that inflation will return to the Federal Reserve’s target rate.
“I would expect that very quickly we will be down to the Fed’s 2% target,” Bessent said. “So I’m expecting inflation to continue dropping over the year.”
Bessent told Bloomberg Television on Friday that he sees the potential for inflation to return to the Fed’s 2% target “quickly.”
“Over the next six to 12 months, as we deregulate, drill more American energy” and bring certainty to extending the 2017 tax cuts, “we could very quickly go back to the Federal Reserve target of 2%,” he told Bloomberg Television’s David Westin.
Bessent was responding Sunday to data in a CBS News poll published Sunday. While 82% said inflation should be a high priority for Trump, only 29% said they think he is prioritizing it “a lot,” according to the poll.
The Feb. 26-28 poll of 2,311 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Trump Says US Crypto Reserve to Include Ripple, Solana, Cardano
(Bloomberg) — Crypto rallied on Sunday after President Donald Trump talked up digital assets including the Ripple-associated XRP token, Solana and Cardano in a post on Truth Social, his preferred social media platform.
In the post, Trump said his executive order on crypto “directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA.”
In fact, Trump’s order — issued in January — didn’t mention any specific tokens and referred only to the possibility of a “national digital asset stockpile,” the potential creation and maintenance of which should be evaluated by the working group.
Bitcoin, which in February tumbled dramatically from its all-time highs, jumped more than 3% to just under $89,000 on Sunday afternoon in New York.
Ripple was up more than 20% at around $2.70, while Solana climbed more than 15% to around $170. Cardano, a much smaller token by market value, rallied more than 60% to trade at around $1.10.
The White House didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The lack of an explicit mention of Bitcoin in the executive order at the time disappointed some of the largest digital token’s most outspoken fans, who had spent months anticipating a “Bitcoin Fort Knox.”
Read: Trump Gets Upstaged by RFK Jr.’s Claims of ‘Bitcoin Fort Knox’
Earlier in February, Trump had shared a CoinDesk story about Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse on Truth Social, stoking both cheers from XRP fans and grumbling among other crypto executives.
Garlinghouse had said in December that his digital payments company planned to donate $5 million worth of XRP to Trump’s inauguration festivities.
Prior to the inauguration, which attracted similarly sizable donations from a range of crypto personalities, Garlinghouse was photographed dining with the president at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stu Alderoty.
What a cursed non-Adamic race…. Over 90% of EXPROPRIATED South African farms have failed under new black beneficiaries.
In light of the South Africa government’s new Expropriation law it is extremely important to get the message out that almost all of the previous attempts were complete failures where the previously successful farms ended up being barren unusable land.
https://youtu.be/Z0BrMmNWb2U?si=aZb4r-KvgFftJYo2
By and large, those people are not capable of proper governance! It is not in their blood!
These blacks are Genesis One people. They aren’t Adamic man. They operate under some sort of curse, and wherever they settle, they curse the land. Just like the non-Israelite synagogue of John 8:44.
As spoken in John 8:33, the Pharisitical Jews who proclaimed to Jesus that they were never in bondage of any man were correct. That’s because they weren’t Israelites. Their father was Abraham, but since they weren’t Israelites, they weren’t held in Egyptian, Assyrian, nor Babylonian captivity. The Israelites were, but the Jews of Jesus’s time hadn’t been.
These Jews persisted throughout time and help to form the Catholic Church back in the 4th century as well as to develop the ultra modern legal system that suppresses us today. Today’s attorneys speak like the Jews of Jesus’s time.
Very very very few people know the truth like what I just said. The entire stack of organized religions are culturally and spiritually communist and corrupt to the core and run by the devil himself from the top.
You want to know the truth? Start thinking like me. You’ll figure out very quickly that everyone in this world will shut you out.
That’s why I create my own destiny while on this planet and I don’t rely on anyone except YHVH himself. That’s why my subscribership continues to dwindle.
Excellent point about bondage! They inadvertently revealed their identity. Regarding the early church forming, look into Flavius Josephus! He conveniently escaped the 70 A.D destruction of Jerusalem and became a turncoat. He traveled to Rome and became a confident of the empire and the rest us history.
If you have a group of people that humbly try and obey the Commandments and Love thee neighbor you don’t need much of a legal system.
Sounds good. When people can no longer govern themselves, they need government to govern them. The more filthy people become, the more they seek government.
In a country now run by non-Adamic man, this is to be expected….
South Africa’s Sole Nuclear-Power Plant Is Down as Unit Trips
(Bloomberg) — A unit at South Africa’s sole nuclear power facility unexpectedly tripped, taking the whole facility offline and further stretching supply to the nation’s already-constrained grid.
Unit 2 at the Koeberg facility in Cape Town “experienced an unplanned, non-technical trip while operating at full capacity,” state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said in a statement Sunday. The reactor will reconnect to the national grid within 48 hours, it said.
Unit 1 is offline for work that’s part of a so-called long-term operation program, Eskom said. Together, the reactors are capable of delivering about 1,940 megawatts to the network.
“While the trip did not necessitate the implementation of loadshedding which remains suspended, Eskom acknowledges that overall, generation capacity remains constrained,” it said, using the local term for rolling blackouts.
South Africa’s nuclear regulator in July gave Eskom permission to run Unit 1 for another two decades as electricity supply remains fragile. The decision is a relief for the utility whose mostly coal-fired plants are prone to breakdowns that trigger scheduled power cuts that hinder the economy.
Last weekend, Eskom took 6,000 megawatts of power supply offline, the most stringent power cuts in a year after multiple generating units at the state utility failed, raising questions about the turnaround in the company’s performance.
Zimbabwe was another case where white owned farms and other assets were confiscated and look where Zimbabwe is today. They suffered massive inflation and shortages of everything and are still suffering today. The truth is that areas managed by blacks are disasters.
Petrus Romanus is such a hypocrite. On one hand, Francis forces a relatively healthy Benedict XVI out of office and into exile for over a decade. On the other, Francis is as sick as any other Pope has been, yet there are no calls for him to step down. He is not indicating that he steps down either.
I am certain he knows his role that he must fulfill. #112 needs to stay alive as long as possible for over two more years….
______
Pope Francis offers message to the faithful on his 17th day in hospital — as Vatican gives health update
https://nypost.com/2025/03/02/world-news/pope-francis-offers-message-to-the-faithful-on-his-17th-day-in-hospital-as-vatican-gives-health-update/
If he does stay alive in some kind of condition, that will prove very interesting. Maybe we will get some sort of A.I. version of the pope.
Very possible Pope Francis could be kept alive in a comatose state for the next 2 years to keep Malachi’s prophecy as told.
2025 is the new 2027.
Pope Francis looks like he’s soon to die two years earlier than I thought. There is no viable replacement for him and he has set up the Catholic church for failure.
Europe is falling apart at the seams. It’s being exposed for the paper tiger and communist cesspool that it really has become. Almost 50 years of under spending for defense has left it vulnerable for the United States departure from mainland Europe. Europe will soon be on its own.
Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia will dominate.
Things are accelerating. Get out of the blue areas!
Now Europe is the coalition of the weak that will try to prop up Ukraine! If Trump backs away military, wow! Is Putin starting to drool?
How interesting would it be if the U.S. left NATO? That seemed unthinkable not that long ago.
And, here we go!
I agree that things are accelerating quickly. There are two things to do:
1) Get your heart, spirit, and life aligned with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming soon. Read the Holy Bible.
2) Get out of liberal/leftist areas. They are the equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah full of sin and debauchery.
Agreed! Also, get your financial house in order and prepare for hard times!
1 John 2:15
Interesting headline, if true! World War III could start in 2025 according to a German military report. There’s that date.
The problem with Zelinsky is that he’s an effeminate man, which means he will side with Democrat policy, by default. He believes liberals and Democrats, regardless of motive and is unable to be assertive enough…..
Disaster in the Oval Office: Dems lead Zelensky, Ukraine off a cliff with pressure to reject mineral deal
A common criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Friday performance in the Oval Office is that he failed to read the room.
Actually, the Ukrainian president did read a room — but it was the wrong room.
Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.
He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side.
Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House, where Trump met his car, smiled, shook his hand and walked him into the Oval Office.
Arrogant ingrate
The meeting, as the world now knows, quickly went off the rails and ended with Trump angrily ejecting the arrogant ingrate from the White House.
The earlier meeting with Dems undercuts wild claims that Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance staged an ambush. In fact, it was Zelensky who came with an ulterior motive.
The purpose of the meeting was to sign the mineral agreement he and Trump representatives had negotiated. He had twice refused to sign it after promising to, and thanks to Murphy, we now know he had no intention of signing it Friday.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/01/opinion/dems-lead-zelensky-ukraine-off-a-cliff-with-pressure-to-reject-mineral-deal/
As stated earlier, he will pay!
I was watching parts of this body language analysis video of the Trump, Zelensky meeting and at the 1:35:22 mark, it shows Zelensky meeting with all the top Demonrat senators, who the video creator calls warmongers, just prior to the Oval Office meeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTvIEIPhiY
After we realize that Zelinsky met with top Democrats immediately before meeting Trump, everything about the nightmarish meeting makes sense.
Zielinsky’s being played like a fiddle by the liberals who couldn’t care less about achieving peace in the real sense. This war has been going on for 3 years and at least 1.5 million people have been killed. Biden’s answer was to prop up Ukraine and wear down Russia by providing hundreds of billions of dollars to grind down Ukraine to a nub. All the while, letting Putin do what he does best; be a warmongering dictator.
I’m not saying Trump is going about it the correct way, but he does seem to be flexible and will adjust. He seems to be taking a pragmatic approach at this point. Shutting out Putin and promoting sanctions is clearly not the answer.
Right! Who are the war pigs now!
The Democrats use to accuse the Republicans of being war pigs and now the Dems are being exposed for the hypocrites they always are.
Zelensky just can’t put the shovel down! This edomite wants WW3 or at least he’s being instructed to do so. Without US help, Look out!
I just think he’s too effeminate and because of that, he believes what the liberals have to say. I’m not trying to make this into some false binary, but the Democrats use Ukraine as a battering ram to keep from actually formally confronting Putin.
To the EU liberals and the Democrats in the states, Zelinsky is patted on the butt and told he’s doing a good job, so he can continue grinding down Ukraine against Russia. This also allows the West to not have to get personally involved.
Essentially, the Democrats and liberals don’t want to formally confront Putin and so they use Zelinsky as their proxy. They lie to Zelinsky and Zelinsky believes it.
I’m not saying Trump is being honest either. It’s just that Trump is willing to personally confront Putin and is man enough to personally get involved. So far, for the past 3 years, the politicians in the West have only acted passive aggressively, so to speak.
Europe better figure out what’s going on STAT, because the United States may start checking out on its Israelite brothers in the EU.
The global order is really upending itself at a speed I could barely comprehend.
That’s right! And now for your pleasure, here comes the trade war!
USAID cuts over $600K funding to UK LGBT group Stonewall
$40,000 cut to ‘gender identity seminars’ in Scotland
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has withdrawn over half a million dollars previously allocated to Stonewall, an LGBT advocacy organization in the U.K. Another $40,000 assigned to “gender identity seminars” in Scotland has also been pulled, according to reports.
Stonewall, which received more than £500,000 (roughly $629,000) over the past three years from the U.S. government’s Global Equality Fund, now faces substantial financial strain. The Times of London reported that the organization might lay off up to half its staff as its largest international funding source has been removed.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/usaid-cuts-over-600k-funding-to-uk-lgbt-group-stonewall.html
Thanks for the answer. It does seem like our reserve status will come back to haunt us in the end! More signs of the end of an Empire!
ZeroHedge is really pushing the pro-Putin, pro-Russian propaganda today and the alt-media are really lapping it up.
Zelensky is a stupid CIA and Soros plant = Russia has a right to Ukraine.
It seems obvious that when at a signing ceremony, the negotiations are over. What about that does Zelensky not understand? If he did not like the terms, you don’t schedule a signing ceremony or closing shall we say. Maybe he thought a hissy fit would work to his advantage! Oops!
It’s clear zelensky just doesn’t feel comfortable around alpha males. He feels comfortable with liberals and the left leaders who play into him. The irony is that they don’t have the power he needs to halt the bloodshed.
Zelensky doesn’t understand true American discussion and he was in DC. He needs to calm down and let the Trump regime talk. Trump and his team do not find the emotion and the talking over of zelensky appealing. I don’t either. I find zelensky’s style really annoying.
He should go back to DC, put his tail between his legs, shut his mouth, and wear shoe lifts with an expense suit and tie.
America and Ukraine have common interests as I see it. They will eventually come to an agreement.
Zelensky has become very self entitled and whiny since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Plus not dressing up to meet Trump and Vance put the icing on the cake for this fallout.
Peru Annual Inflation Cools to 1.5% as Expected in February
(Bloomberg) — Inflation in Peru’s capital Lima cooled in February as expected by economists, remaining within the lower end of the central bank’s target band.
Year-over-year inflation increased 1.48% last month in Lima, slowing from 1.85% in January, according to data published by national statistics institute INEI on Saturday. The median forecast of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for price increases to rise by 1.47%. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.19% compared to January.
Peru boasts the lowest inflation rate among Latin America’s largest economies. Central bank chief Julio Velarde has forecast that inflation will continue to cool on an annual basis in March, approaching 1%, before picking up again to about 2% by the end of the year.
The bank targets annual inflation of between 1% and 3%, but prefers when price increases stay within the middle of the range.
Controlled inflation is giving Peru’s government confidence that the economy can accelerate in 2025 and grow about 4% in the year, compared to 3.3% in 2024. The central bank will meet to discuss its benchmark interest rate, currently at 4.75%, in mid-March.
Maybe the Mar A Largo accord is a planned take down of the USD and USA. While it may seem destructive and counterproductive on the face, this could be part of the plan.
If that’s the case then we need to own the income generating assets.