Friday Open Thread

17 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Apologies for the downtime this morning, we had a DNS issue that took some time to figure out. All is well once again.

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   1. thanks for the update.

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   2. I blame Trump

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2. You have enemies, Alva. Maybe you guys are on “Loomers’ List”…

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3. Surgically Designed Tariffs to Wreck our Alliances, Support Russia, and Enable China's Power. Phillips Obrien.

   OBrien writes mostly about war, specifically the Russian attack on Ukraine, but here he looks at international relations fallout from Trump's Tariffs.

   Hi All,

   I do hope you enjoyed US Liberation Day! Or as I like to call it, US Destroy Alliances Day (USDAD—pretty catchy, huh!). 

   The tariff announcements that Trump made on Wednesday may or may not be intended to remake the US (and world economies) by leading America to be far more of an internalized economy. However they certainly do seem designed, almost surgically, to loosen the economic relationship between the USA and some of its most important strategic allies and partners (and possible partners).

   For me the remarkable thing is that practically every US ally/partner in East and South Asia is now down to be on the receiving end of some of the most punitive tariffs that Trump is imposing. This includes formal allies such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand, defense partners such as Taiwan, and states with whom the US has been cooperating more and more on defense issues such as Vietnam (subject to a 90% tariff!) and India. These are all states that the US has for the past few years seen as either central or of growing importance to its security—which makes sense if you accept the premise that China is now the greatest threat to the American position in the world.

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   1. He may be a maveolent actor. But if I had to bet money I'd put it down to stupidity and a man-crush on Putin.

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4. Colorado Electric Prices

   They're reasonable (for a non-nuclear state)

   A good news post 🙂

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5. Saw a reference to Challenger, Gray & Christmas monthly report.   When I looked, I was amazed Colorado doesn't get hit badly in the report. Except for the important caveat:  "Challenger tracks job cuts by headquarter location unless the announcement specifies where the layoffs will occur."

   JOB CUT ANNOUNCEMENT REPORT
   Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. ©
   Table 3: JOB CUTS BY REGION, STATE

   Colorado  Mar-25 432    YTD 2025 1,815       YTD 2024  2,509

   In the real news of the release:

   CHICAGO, April 3, 2025 – U.S.-based employers announced 275,240 job cuts in March, a 60%
   increase from the 172,017 cuts announced one month prior. It is up 205% from the 90,309 cuts
   announced in the same month in 2024, which was the highest monthly total recorded last year,
   according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive
   coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc….

   March’s total is the third-highest monthly total ever recorded. The highest monthly total occurred in
   April 2020 when 671,129 cuts were recorded, followed by May 2020 with 397,016. It is the highest
   total for the month of March on record, since Challenger began reporting on job cut plans in 1989.
   So far this year, employers have announced 497,052, the highest year-to-date and quarterly total
   since Q1 2009, when 578,510 job cuts were announced. It is up 93% from the 257,254 cuts
   announced during the same period in 2024 and an increase of 227% from the 152,116 cuts
   announced in the previous quarter. (Table 5)

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6. Newsom speaks and leads reality against the backdrop of Trumps deconstruction of USA economy : 

    

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mGJa4jKG8

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7. TRUMP DID THIS ON PURPOSE.  When will congress ( house stand ) against it?  1.5 years?  50% drop in DOW?  

   Business is freaking out. 

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8. Dan Rather on Facebook:

   When a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the palace instead becomes a circus. — Turkish proverb,

   I wonder if there’s a Turkish proverb about the level of acumen dipshittery required for a clown to bankrupt his own casino country?

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   1. But the price of eggs ……

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      1. That's on Biden/Harris – they didn't figure out how to sell their economic stewardship to the low info persuadable voters.

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9. From the IEA – Nuclear is cheaper than VREs. The IEA is very reputable and technology neutral.

   

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   1. Nuclear may be cheaper (though we don't have very good information about the complete lifecycle expense). 

      But there are a WHOLE bunch of places doing the calculation and saying now is not the time. From the report from the "very reputable and technology neutral" IEA:

      Nuclear market leadership has continued to shift away from advanced economies
      and towards China and Russia. Although advanced economies hold two-thirds of
      global nuclear capacity, the vast majority of new construction is in EMDE, based
      on Chinese or Russian technology (Figure 1.4). Between the beginning of 2017
      and end of 2024, 52 nuclear reactors began construction, of which all but four
      were either Chinese designs (25) or Russian designs (23). The construction of just
      four reactors were started in the advanced economies – two in the United Kingdom
      based on European designs, and two in Korea using national technology. Such a
      high concentration among nuclear technology providers could hinder future
      development.

      Seven years, only four starts.  seems like there may be a bit of market-based reluctance involved.

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      1. This country has been so anti-nuclear since 3 Mile Island that it forced a halt. We're slowly starting to realize how stupid that halt was.

         And yeah, it's going to be hard to restart. But the alternative is lots of gas for backup energy and overpaying for a less reliable source.

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   2. How about the stability of nuclear power in Ukraine?

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