CJ, years of austerity won’t be undertaken voluntarily. They will try to kick this down the road forever. Inflation is their only hope to get out of debt.

I’m so bad at market timing, so take this for what you paid for it. Gold is going a lot higher. Maybe not soon. But it has to.

ETFs in taxable are a PITA because most of them are setup as trusts, and trust expenses are not allowed to be part of your cost basis. So every year you have to track the expenses and then keep a special sheet so you can subtract them from your basis when you sell. Physical in taxable is a no brain...

ETFs in taxable are a PITA because most of them are setup as trusts, and trust expenses are not allowed to be part of your cost basis. So every year you have to track the expenses and then keep a special sheet so you can subtract them from your basis when you sell. Physical in taxable is a no brain...

boglerdude wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 12:18 am

So, what would cause the Fed to bring the pain like Volker? Country isn't run by Men anymore.

It’s hard for me to imagine it being done. But you never know.

Gather round kids, while I tell you about the time I bought gold at $779 in 2008. It was a dark and stormy night, and the printing presses were running.... ===== Gather round kids, while I tell you about my dad, who bought gold for $300 in 1980. Inflation was almost 20%. Then Sheriff Volker showed u...

In the past, some machines just weren’t Linux friendly, even if you had a proper ISO file. Macs were especially hard, while PCs have been more friendly. I think that’s why I gave up on Fedora: I wanted to put it on my old Mac mini. I learned that Fedora could work on that specific model and made th...

The one I'm checking out is MX Linux. It's supposed to be lightweight. I'm going to buy some more USB sticks and load them with other flavors. I don't want to go crazy but I'd like to see a couple more at least. For my limited uses all I really want is easy hardware management/compatibility and a br...

I tried to make a bootable Linux USB drive from an ISO file this morning. I find the process exhausting. Terminal mode, etc., things don't give the results that the instructions say, etc etc. I hate this crap. I gave up. This should be a super simple process but it's not. Linux will never be ready f...

I need to figure out how to back up the existing OS. Although really, it’s of no use and my personal files have already been migrated to my current Mac. I guess I’m stalling.

Found this article,
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-best- ... dows-easy/

I have one these little Macbook Airs. https://support.apple.com/en-us/112439 Sweet little machine. A couple of years ago, I replaced the battery and put in 4GB of ram. But now it is obsolete as far as keeping up with OS upgrades. By many versions. It is stuck at 10.9 (Mavericks). I have installed a ...

I finally updated my spreadsheet which tracks lifetime performance. My IRR is just under 7% as of August 31. It would be a bit higher today. The ZIRP years gave reduced yields, but you have to say that's to be expected. So anyway, 7% with all that zero interest and supposedly low inflation is a good...

I've seen it said that it would not be a civil war, in which one side is fighting the other for control of the government. In fact "the Civil War" of 1861-65 fails that test. Rather it would be like the Revolutionary War, with neighbors fighting neighbors. None of this is appealing. I thin...

FWIW: Found this lecture to High School Students quite interesting => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-_l9jBGo74 From what I gather the teacher is either from or in Canada. If that's the standard of Canadian teachers :o I didn't watch the video but I have watched one previously by him. His whole d...

I recently engaged with a lefty ex-co-worker I'm friends with on a similar topic. I don't think they are interested in prosperity, only in equality. They would rather live in a shithole where everyone is poor than tolerate the billionaires who create the stuff they use on a daily basis. Yes, that’s...

Okay, I guess I have gotten this out of my system for now. I'm open for replies of course, but I just cannot imagine there is anything from the left which will make any sense economically.

The official Democratic platform of 2024, as published in Chicago and beginning with an acknowledgment that they were meeting on lands that used to belong to various native tribes. https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FINAL-MASTER-PLATFORM.pdf Too big to cut and paste much, but here are ...

This is from the New Democrats Coalition (Centered & Strong) in Congress, for 2025. Presumably "centrists" or "moderates"? I. Economic Growth and Opportunity: Work, Wages and Wealth Helping Americans achieve financial freedom — not just making ends meet but getting ahead. Low...

Eat the rich. Tax billionaires giev UBI. They'll point to Norway, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland. And dismiss that those countries have generational wealth and closed borders. Palo Alto and Scarsdale are old-money paradises too. The Convoy ended our free trial version of communism.exe in 2022. That ex...

I literally could not be more pleased with the results of my PP. I started with a pseudo-PP in about 2000, and turned it into the real thing in 2008. Both dates involved windfalls received due to sales of business assets. The CAGR for the past 10 years is right at 8%. I should break out the spreadsh...

If I were to ask a left or progressive person to lay out their vision for a successful economy, what could they say? My main question would be something like, "Do you accept that prosperity means producing more than you consume? If you agree, how do you propose to accomplish that?" It woul...

I agree with everything you said. I’m appalled that people increasingly see murder as a solution. Luigi Mangione, and now this. It may just be the beginning. Yes, Luigi too, that's a good point. For some reason the reactions to that one didn't resonate as much with me at the time but they should ha...

I’m really disgusted by the self published reactions of many young leftists to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Untold numbers of people taking to X etc to say, “now how about Ben Shapiro”, or JK Rowling, or others. First off, it almost goes without saying that social media is a cancer. The problem is th...

Have you read Deep Risk, by William Bernstein? It’s about your question, including the PP.

The Elon Musk story has a long way to go. But at this point he’s starting to look like a character in Atlas Shrugged.