August 25

6:09 AM I think it is safe to say, in his wisdom (a steady genius) Trump is chasing his own tail in Canada. Of all major US trade partners, Canada is the most balanced. 

3:10 When was that, two weeks ago when Trump said he is worried about communists taking over the country, but yet he favors China vs Canada in trade relations. More than that, though US imports 200 billions more than it exports to China instead of selling them cars to help balance the deficit, Tesla manufactures them in China.

The real reason? I always thought it was a good thing for us to buy iPhones from China because they could be cheaper ("because of cheap labor there") however i just discovered on the long term that is very bad for US trade balance and ultimately debt, because being made in China they are brought as imports and that adds to the trade deficit that turns to debt which interest is for now is covered by burdening the budget (one trillion) and stealing from Medicare (another trillion).

3:50 But i bet Ford and Apple are not the only us firms that manufacture in China and then import their products in the US. There are probably many more smaller firms and probably the same situation in Mexico and they are all imbalancing the trade.

And do you want to know the real cause of all these? I read a few days ago of a guy whose rent in San Francisco went from 3000 a month to 9000 a month.

I believe US is among the very few countries in the world that do not put a cap to rents.

Otherwise they could easily find the young people here that would be willing to work in those factories if only they cold afford the rent on a minimal or just above minimal wage.

4:44

He's got a Chinese name. He even looks Chinese. But i bet he is not. But that is another story.

5:20 Last of the summer wine. They are moving more stuff to the cars. However bass stopped just a few seconds ago when we were already dressing to leave for the day and i came to write here.

11:55 Sometimes i feel like Nicholas Cage in the movie. Discovering and re-discovering National Treasuries. Never heard about this book though.

August 24

6:06 AM Jackson Hole. Just posted about the hole in the wall, national debt and Federal Reserve.

12:21 PM Mai bine să mâncăm muguri! (isărești).

12:34


Us annual trade deficit.

Dou you all have any idea what they are doing with the money? I'm gonna tell you. They keep buying stocks and bonds and one day when everything will crash and the Treasury will default under the enormous debt, they will start sending instead of cars and returnable goods on Amazon, (the) robots (like they already started in selected areas). Latest models from the future. To a neighborhood near you.

12:45 I believe in angels...

7:20

Did you know patriotic Ford last year imported 378,123 vehicles in the US, mainly from Mexico and Canada? While GM about 41% of all sales both contributing to raising the national debt by about... (should multiply the numbers by 50k? to figure the dollar value?)

10:20 I thought it would be irresponsible for me if i knew and did not write about this.

Fifty years ago or when i first saw them i was intrigued as why they don't have them. I mean, what separates the pads from the rotor after releasing brake pedal?

I guess in their wisdom engineers deemed it not necessary (as some except for Korean ones still do). After releasing the pedal, brake fluid pressure in the lines goes to zero, so the force must go to 0 they must have said. However... there must be transient phenomena, stickiness factor, name it, that makes the brake pads push a little on the rotors. How little? About 10% in mpg i recon.

Last Friday after my mileage decreased dramatically i took one of those appart, but unfortunately i was too incapacitated from smoke coming at night from upstairs to know for sure. If one of those jumped out of place that is but after i re-installed them correctly, the mpg went a bit higher.

Today i planed to look at the left rear (in the end should look at all), but it was too hot and in the evening i got too lazy, now i know how and what to look for without taking them apart, except for the wheel itself to gain better viewing. Jack, untorque, lug nuts etc..

But to my surprise, after i did a search i realized not all vehicles have them. A tiny piece of bent steel wire that could save you hundreds in one year, in gas, brake pads, rotors and engine wear out. The car had 70k when i got it, did 110 more (90% of it in long drives outside cities), don't know if they did the brakes prior to that, but the rears at least have 3 more mm to go.

In the image, the blue wire springs keep the pads apart when not breaking.

10:45 Went outside to smoke, a coal like smoke was already there.

Angela got a device for her bulged disk about ten days ago. She charges it for one hour then she can use it half hour. It makes a peculiar profound bass like sound audible in the whole apartment. I bet it has something to do with the unbearable bass yesterday at Chinook cause she used it inside the hotel at 3 rivers. Before she got the gift. The base sound in the apartment upstairs today. But it does not compare in intensity.

Also. She got a Windows update yesterday that changed a setting and moved all her email (thousands, some with attachment) in onedrive, which filled her onedrive free space and now she can't send or receive emails if she doesn't pay for extra space. It's a dejavu, it happened one year ago. Got to take a look tomorrow and fix it.

Last week she got diagnosed with severe arthritis at her right hand. Got a steroid injection that did not work mostly because the cartilage between two of her bones is gone.

BTW. The Cosori oven works fine however. First. You have to press several time on start button or until it flashes something (not sure). So i put there and it does not start though the pizza unfreezes.

Then the final alarm has a very week sound and i can't hear it except if i put another alarm. How many pizzas (frozen) i burnt so far (cause the oven stops by itself, but it's still hot).

August 23

9:25 Don't know if this legend is true but they managed to entangle global warming with the name of Christ.

10:05 Trying to imagine how may Spaniards lived in Peru in the early 1600 or 50 years after the establishment of viceroyalty and if they could give birth of such legend. How they got there (around South America?) and if they had a fishing fleet that could observe and document the phenomenon. 

August 22

10:3o AM Centrala a fost închisă pentru a menține Canalul Dunăre Marea Neagră funcțional. Din 1300 mc/s, 210 sunt pompați prin Stația de Pompare Complexă în canal.

12:25 PM Every time i say something about US debt, Trump does this (or something similar). Tariffs on Canadian imports cannot erase 40 years of car imports from Japan.

However debt to foreign countries is only about 24% of 32 trillions (or 40, not clear). Most of public US debt is towards domestic entities, including Federal Reserve (6.3 trillions), mutual funds, banks and retirement.

But those 6.3 trillion are not part of the mysterious 20%.

August 20

6:46 AM "As bonds yield higher". Out of 39 trillion (should be 40 by now) debt, "only" about 32 is "publicly held marketable debt". At current yields the interest rates for the 32 trillion debt cannot be one trillion as shown in the 7 trillion US Federal Spending budget which would mean an average rate of 1/32=3.1%. Not talking about the principals (buy back at maturity).

Those money ought to come from somewhere and coincidentally there is almost one trillion missing at Medicare.

7:33 Question. What is Federal Reserve doing with 6.3 trillions in notes and bonds part of national 32 or 40 trillion debt and why do Americans pay interest for it.

If we apply an interest rate of 5% to 6 trillion dollars we get about 300 billion a year or almost 1/3 of total debt servicing of 1 trillion budget of 7 trillion  Federal Spending Budget. What is Federal Reserve doing with that money?  

Federal Reserve was created as a backup in case of financial crisis. However nowadays it generates (constant) profit for private entities, drawing from interests from public debt.

9:52 Lenin's apparatchiks.