Oh, you mean not as an endless series of promises about robo-cars and AI? And at a PE ratio somewhere south of Mars? I have been dying to short the stock, but for ten years the Musk cult has made that risky...
Wish I had shorted Amazon before today's close. I'm having to satisfy myself with the Schadenfreude of watching Bezos Bozos take it on the chin or in other various bodily orifices.
Tom, unrelated to the article - I’d like to ask if you’re the son of Tom and Liz Dubois? Tom was a client of my husband’s and I got to know Tom and Liz very well and I adored them! Unfortunately I lost touch with them as we live in different states and my husband and Tom moved in to different companies. If you are their son, I’d like to give you my contact info if they’d like to reconnect.
I have noticed something about Tesla cars as I walk through various parking lots when doing errands. Newer Tesla vehicles have no branding hardware, nothing to indicate the vehicle is a Tesla. How weird is that?
I think you'll find that EV's are great, and China's are cheaper and better. I have a Leaf that I like, my girlfriend a used Bolt she got for $10,500 after rebate(!) that she loves. Its the EV concept and planet-saving that's great, not Tesla...
This sums it up perfectly: Bitcoin’s hype has always outpaced reality.
No fundamentals, no medium of exchange, and now the political boosters are exposed — Trump couldn’t prop it up, and ETTD strikes again. The crash isn’t just financial, it’s a reality check for the myth-making that markets can be “magically” manipulated.
I've always felt like there was something I'm missing about cryptocurrencies. They were invented as a way to facilitate crime and engage in financial transactions outside of the tax system. But as anything else, I've just never understood it. Had to laugh when Bitcoin hit $100,000. I can't understand why it's worth 100 cents. Other than people buying it as an "investment" (and I use the term loosely), thinking they can always find a bigger fool to sell it to.
I still have a sensation that the pattern of a rollercoaster is intrinsic in Bitcoins’ world: since you cannot buy nothing with it, it has no intrinsic value, it’s mainly used by speculators (when not grifters), burst are needed to reset the value in order to attract new investors to reap when quotations go upwards
OMG, the real real fun will be when they have to pay you to hold Bitcoin! LOL That will be after its price has declined in true Trumpian fashion 101%! LOLOL
A Trumpian decline would be a fall of “100%, 400%, 600%, a thousand percent in some cases.” Which makes perfect sense—to those who understand how exporting countries are paying for tariffs.
It's painful when coffee exits via the nostrils (although far less painful than what's happening to the bodily orifices of those who bought Trump coins or Bitcoin). And I may need a new monitor now! LOLOL
The Crypto Whales--including DJT--have already fleeced the gullible non-institutional investors. When enough suckers "invest" in crypto to drive up its' price, the Whales sell, driving the price back down.
If Bitcoin prices drop low enough, the Whales will start to buy again. Setting the stage for another wash-rinse-repeat. Assuming they can con another crop of non-institutional suckers to hop into the meat grinder.
There is a lot of borrowed money in cryptocurrency and a lot of the same people have borrowed money in the stock market and AI (arrogant ignorance). Cryptocurrency just looks like the "first domino".
If people would treat AI as a tool that must be validated before use instead of something magical, we would be better off. For that matter, we need to rein in the atrocious magical thinking on Wall Street.m too.
There's a big difference between the ultimate technology of AI and the current overhyped investment in AI companies. In order to make that money back, they have to charge their customers an insane amount of money.
China has a much better grasp of AI (development, usability, practical applications) than these bloated American tech companies.
Sorry, but it's both. It's a technology based on math, with uses far divorced from the marketing and investment hype. Good luck surfing the financial tsunami that's coming.
I hate to root for economic problems that among other impacts will hurt my own bottom line, but if that's the price - literally - for saving democracy, then I say - to quote W - "Bring it on."
Problem is some of us have a bit of a buffer and some do not, when the economy crashes, which now seems more and more inevitable, there will be a huge die off of markets and humans.
When I hear people on the right clearly saying bring it on, I’m ready, I’m curious why those who think they’re high enough on the hill that they won’t have to learn to swim and it’s only the ‘others’ who will suffer…. I think of countries I’ve travelled in where lots of money or the illusion of it DOESN’T keep them above the flood line, their quality of life still involves closing their eyes and pinching their noses.
I don’t wanna live in a world where the starving are littering the streets.
There is already blood on the streets. Just ask Venezuela. The naked imperialism of the US is a greater threat to the world's poor than a crypto-recession. That is not even mentioning the gross anti-climate abuses of the US - the world's dirtiest nation, by consumption.
I considered this aspect too. Data shows a 1% increase in unemployment is historically linked to a 1-1.6% increase in suicides and a 3.3-3.6% increase in drug overdoses. But looking at the policies of the two parties, in the long term, I believe the policies of Democrats are more helpful to those most in need of help.
Homelessness has increased 170% in the city where I live amazingly before covid (2019)...I live in a city with the highest homeless rate in the US....Memphis apparently outnumbers us in homicides, despite ICE's presence. Our country is a f-ked up mess and a bunch of grifters in charge is NOT going to make it any better.
Unless you're relying on the stock market's performance for your everyday living expenses, just hold on - don't panic. No one will have really suffered a loss unless they sell it at a loss. Odds are good that sane leadership will return to DC in the near future and there will be a long-term recovery and values will rebound. (If you're invested in crypto, gold, or futures, not so certain....)
Good advice, Dave. Having been an investor during the dot.com bubble bursting and the Great Recession, I've gotten used to focusing on the long run ... of course, as Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." ;-)
Gold price is being pumped up by fears of a weak dollar and market collapses. Its value is likely being inflated by the very things that it is hedging against. Not sure what will happen to the price if/when folks start cashing out their inflated gold....
We can't assume that a financial crash will get rid of MAGA. It should since they're the one's who are driving the bus off the cliff, but life is way more complicated. Never underestimate ignorance.
So true. After the own-goals of the Bush 2 era, Republicans should have been out of power for a generation. But they tripled down on their foolishness instead.
I agree with you. At 79 I cannot afford to see my assets tank too much but if that saves my country then I shall consider it a good long term investment. And hope I am here to enjoy it!
Few years younger than you, but fortunate enough to be in a position where I don't have to worry about my assets. Hope all turns out well for you and for our country.
I like to share with you that the US only had Cargo Cult Democracy by design. We need reformations to get closer to a system that actually represents the votes by counting them truthfully, like money.
In January 2022 DJT (trump's truth social stock) hit a high of $101.87. Today it closed at $10.90. If this were any other stock in the world, NASDAQ would be talking about removing it from the board.
It still baffles me that the installation of a free and open-source software instance of Mastodon, which is the core of Truthsocial, was allowed to be listed on the stock market at all.
That shows you that Republicans aren't stupid so much as they are evil: they know better than to trust Trump with *their* money. They know it's a scam.
Good! I hope. They all got greedy believing what trump says about, you’ll be so rich, just do whatever he says, what a scam, as you listen to him, he’s raided their bank accounts. Maybe now they’ll see the truth of “everything trump touches dies” It’s about time they smartened up to what that fucks doing. 💙✌🏽
This is bad for investors, but not the Trump family as they received nice tradable Dollars in exchange for selling their meme coins. When (not if) these coins reach zero, the Trumps will still have all of those nice Dollars and investor will have....nothing.
Don't forget New Yorkers, Kirsten Gillibrand wanted very much to get onboard the Crypto train -- don't let her off the hook if its derailment causes her to change position. Meanwhile, sigh, my Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno got himself elected on the back of Crypto bro money. Here's hoping Sherrod Brown makes it back in now that the Crypto bros are tapped out.
Please consider urging the AGs in RI, VA, and IL to begin criminal indictments for “Misprision of Treason” against all relevant suspects.
“Anyone with knowledge of treason who fails to report it can be charged with misprision of treason, punishable by up to seven years in prison.”
Miller, Wiles, Hegseth, etc. don’t have immunity and 47 can’t pardon them.
This criminal charge applies to misprision of treason at the state OR federal level. You DO NOT have to be a resident of those states to file formal complaints. AGs need to take action now.
Virginia (§ 18.2-482): Class 6 felony for failing to report known treason within a reasonable time. Email: mailoag@oag.state.va.us
Rhode Island (11-43-3): Explicitly prohibits the misprision of treason: ag@riag.ri.gov
Additionally, federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2382) criminalizes the misprision of treason against the United States.
When I was a middle school guidance counselor, responsible for investigating incidents of HIB (harassment, intimidation, bullying), we focused on the underlings instead of the kingpins. It didn’t take long for the house of cards to collapse. Maybe that will work here?
(The following states have Misprision of Treason laws but red leadership)
Louisiana (La. R.S. 14:114): Defines it as the concealment or failure to disclose treason, punishable by up to 10 years at hard labor.
Florida (876.33): Defines it as a third-degree felony to conceal treason and fail to report it to the Governor or a judge.
Nevada (NRS 196.030): Category C felony for concealing knowledge of treason.
So what about dear Messrs. Bessent and Lutnick, the crypto boosters and their brave new world of harnessing government for their own profits? Or is Lutnick now a bit distracted by the excitement over his vacation on Epstein's island? Such honorable people...and competent, aren't they? With a president like Donald Trump, and Cabinet Secretaries like these, and a new Fed Chair in Ken Warsh who believes in AI momentum for the economy and even (according to the man who wants him in that job) looks the part ...happy days are here again? (Sorry, bad joke. That was a Democratic Party song, of course, from the old days.)
Yes, thanks. There was an MC (conférencier or public presenter and host) in Weimar Germany, Werner Finck, of Die Katakombe, who dared to speak out against the Nazis during the great era of the nightclubs depicted in "The Blue Angel" (1930) on which "Cabaret" was later based. He used to raise his hand in the Hitler salute over his head and say: "We're up to here with this sh-t." That sounds right for Trump's America.
Yes, I saw that. I'm a retired Fed and have a son in Federal service. This will certainly be litigated right out of the box. It remains to be seen how soon it gets to the Supine Six. I hope it ends up like Schedule F. Meanwhile, a blue tsunami in November would be a helpful development.
By the time a family member told me he had invested in bitcoin but lost $4000 which he could not afford to lose, it was too late for him. I helped him out but we agreed no more buying sh*t on the Internet.
it was intended to solve a problem at the time, which is that big banks (and brokers) had proved themselves criminally negligent at managing people's money and mortgages, thus the crash of 2008. So - a method of getting rid of the intermediaries sounded tempting.
BUT it's way too complex and slow, not to mention - as it has turned out - not as secure as hoped and subject to theft and loss and subject to tracing - so Dr K is right: no legal use case, really. The banks came back, with better risk management, and can do what BTC can do faster and cheaper and more securely.
Understandable that drug dealers/criminals might use Crypto for their transactions. But that doesn't answer the question regarding bank/broker negligence in managing money.
Crypto goes from insufficient regulation and oversight to NO regulation/oversight. See how that makes everything better? /S
IMHO, the solution for insufficient regulation of overly large corporations is to structure corporate/partnership/entity taxes to specifically disfavor bigness, eg a graduated tax on GROSS income, which is much harder to fiddle than 'profits'.
If companies the size of Exxon, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc., were taxed at 20% of their gross income, they would find ways to break up into 50 smaller companies (still huge!!) that would perforce compete with each other, and disaster in one would not be large enough to crash everything.
(cf Lehman Brothers 2008)
FTC Monopoly enforcement is too weak, too uncertain, and much too slow to be effective.
In my experience, sitting out seldom pays off. This past year saw dramatic share growth. Even with a correction, the additional shares my dividends bought will sustain my lifestyle.
Everytime Trump or his goons and goombahs said something negative about Canada or Canadians, I took the opportunity to rotate out of the S&P 500 and into Canadian stocks (via ETFS that focus on Canada). Why ditch the S&P you ask? Well, the SEC had a fraud inquiry into Coinbase during Biden's administration. As soon as Trump took office the SEC ditched the fraud probe. Guess which company made it into the S*P in 2025? Coinbase.
Good to know. I'll have to see what's available in Vanguard - the news from Canada seems to be pretty good these days. Perhaps I should also check into Sweden (SAAB).
Check out JP Morgan's BetaBuilder Canada ETF (ticker = BBCA). It went down today, mainly because Canadian mining companies whose shares it holds were down in the general commodity slump. But I've been impressed with its performance as a counter to what I believe to be a thoroughly corrupted S&P 500. Nvidia, for example, is engaged in mythologizing its revenue streams as somehow organic when they are anything but. Don't count on Trump's SEC to do anything about it though.
And, many EU stocks are creating actual value while their governments are based on rule of law and democratic principles. Investing in the EU is my ESG.
Yes, that is common wisdom, and you will probably be correct. However, the possibility of a major market correction is likely. The market is way overvalued. And then there is the Trump effect. He does have a track record of destroying value.
I presume you're talking about real investments, not bitcoin. If so, I'm with you; my Vanguard funds have done well this past year. If we have another crash like 2008, I'll still be OK.
I also have significant assets at Vanguard. I was happy with 2025 but given the ongoing chaos in Washington I’m starting to broaden my exposure to global markets.
I think that there are a whole lot of young men losing money right now. The only people I've ever known who invested in crypto are young men. Like day traders, their vision of investing is often thinly-veiled gambling.
It was because trump was fraudulently, corruptly - probably illegally! - deprived of the Westchester Kennel Club BEST IN SHOW award he so richly deserved
I guess you haven't been paying attention to what either one has been doing during the past week. Silver fell 27% last Friday and 16% today. Gold's drops were also significant, though not of the same magnitude.
Significant movement is apparently one monster of a whale in China. Made a mint off gold and is now net short $300M in Silver futures, and that is not nearly as liquid of a market. Get ready for more wild times ahead.
I started using Claude Opus 4.6 today. It is much, much better than 4.5.
The LLMs/AIs are now being developed by the LLMs/AIs. Exponential improvement enabled by exponential improvement.
One key to navigating life successfully is properly adapting to exponential growth functions, the good ( Moore's Law ) and the bad ( the COVID epidemic ).
I'm sure that with it contributing to a ruined environment, increasing the already high cost of energy, and the coming millions of displaced workers, everyone will agree it's all worth it, so you can enjoy your "improved" life now.
I am saying it's doing well and I have bought. I will continue to do so while remaining diversified. I just took the required minimal distribution from my IRA out of U.S. stock funds and bought European stocks in this fund outside of my IRA. I've had money invested in this fund as part of my IRA for years and, as many people have pointed out (including Paul) European stocks (including this fund) have climbed about twice as much as U.S. stocks have over the last year.
As Vanguard says "Past performance is no guarantee."
I have a bit of money in that one too, but it contains a mix of stocks that include U.S. companies. The "ex-US" fund does not. Still, the International Stock fund did nearly as well last year as the ex-US fund did ( about 1% lower).
I confess I am a bit surprised. There aren't any fundamentals, but a surefire way to prop up the price of anything is for someone to direct the government to buy it. I fully expected we'd see Trump direct some branch of the federal government to (illegally) buy bitcoins or whatever other crypto at some magic price to maintain the illusion of value. That he didn't (yet) is a small consolation, I suppose.
I'm not surprised. The whole point of Trumpcoin etc. was to bribe Trump and his minions, but they know that the actual "cryptocurrency" is useless unless it's converted to real money. I doubt they're holding it any more.
Now the Silicon Valley true believers? Yeah, they're probably holding because in spite of being "smart" guys they're also very dumb.
Yeah, but on a base level, they don’t want to piss off their base. They know on some level that it’s useless, but there’s nothing stopping these kinds of people from directing the federal government to buy it at whatever value they choose. It amounts to handing public money to their followers but… since when has brazen corruption been a reason for these people not to do something?
Of course Trump still holds a lot of Trumpcoin. He didn't pay anything for it and it is still a mechanism to receive bribes. He can't sell it without the price collapsing (more) unless there is a briber on the other end of the transaction buying around the same time. They don't actually have to pass the crypto on to him effect the bribe.
that was the point of the 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' - always a (bad) way to let the surprisingly few very very heavy investors in BTC to cash out in real US money.
Please tell us your cat's name, and also please put the photo of the cat interposing him or herself between you and your laptop some place we can link to.
If you click on Paul's name as it appears just under the title of this article, you will see a large version of the photo of Jack in Paul's lap. You can probably capture the photo as a JPEG or something (try right-clicking on the image).
Two things I love watching fall off a cliff....
Bitcoin and
DJT stinkin' stock ticker
You forgot tesla
I would love to see it valued as a car company with decreasing sales....
Oh, you mean not as an endless series of promises about robo-cars and AI? And at a PE ratio somewhere south of Mars? I have been dying to short the stock, but for ten years the Musk cult has made that risky...
Wish I had shorted Amazon before today's close. I'm having to satisfy myself with the Schadenfreude of watching Bezos Bozos take it on the chin or in other various bodily orifices.
and just after he got the thing supersized
Tom, unrelated to the article - I’d like to ask if you’re the son of Tom and Liz Dubois? Tom was a client of my husband’s and I got to know Tom and Liz very well and I adored them! Unfortunately I lost touch with them as we live in different states and my husband and Tom moved in to different companies. If you are their son, I’d like to give you my contact info if they’d like to reconnect.
I have noticed something about Tesla cars as I walk through various parking lots when doing errands. Newer Tesla vehicles have no branding hardware, nothing to indicate the vehicle is a Tesla. How weird is that?
I would like to see Musk sell his shares of the company. The car is great. Elon Musk, not so much.
I think you'll find that EV's are great, and China's are cheaper and better. I have a Leaf that I like, my girlfriend a used Bolt she got for $10,500 after rebate(!) that she loves. Its the EV concept and planet-saving that's great, not Tesla...
This sums it up perfectly: Bitcoin’s hype has always outpaced reality.
No fundamentals, no medium of exchange, and now the political boosters are exposed — Trump couldn’t prop it up, and ETTD strikes again. The crash isn’t just financial, it’s a reality check for the myth-making that markets can be “magically” manipulated.
Those who pay attention know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true.
BTW - the AI suggested the sentence end . . . it is true. We need to watch what AI is telling us.
I've always felt like there was something I'm missing about cryptocurrencies. They were invented as a way to facilitate crime and engage in financial transactions outside of the tax system. But as anything else, I've just never understood it. Had to laugh when Bitcoin hit $100,000. I can't understand why it's worth 100 cents. Other than people buying it as an "investment" (and I use the term loosely), thinking they can always find a bigger fool to sell it to.
I still have a sensation that the pattern of a rollercoaster is intrinsic in Bitcoins’ world: since you cannot buy nothing with it, it has no intrinsic value, it’s mainly used by speculators (when not grifters), burst are needed to reset the value in order to attract new investors to reap when quotations go upwards
What about financing criminal activity? Isn't that a "fundamental"?
You and I are at present, then, having a little fun, but the real party starts when Bitcoin gets close to zero.
OMG, the real real fun will be when they have to pay you to hold Bitcoin! LOL That will be after its price has declined in true Trumpian fashion 101%! LOLOL
A Trumpian decline would be a fall of “100%, 400%, 600%, a thousand percent in some cases.” Which makes perfect sense—to those who understand how exporting countries are paying for tariffs.
It's painful when coffee exits via the nostrils (although far less painful than what's happening to the bodily orifices of those who bought Trump coins or Bitcoin). And I may need a new monitor now! LOLOL
Even more fun is $KingMAGAcoin dropped over 12 percent. $QueenMAGAcoin is doing a little better, having only dropped 4.5 percent.
Poor Don Jr.......
Junior wants out anyway. Glengarry Glen Ross is about to take off and he wants to win that Cadillac Eldorado this month
The Crypto Whales--including DJT--have already fleeced the gullible non-institutional investors. When enough suckers "invest" in crypto to drive up its' price, the Whales sell, driving the price back down.
If Bitcoin prices drop low enough, the Whales will start to buy again. Setting the stage for another wash-rinse-repeat. Assuming they can con another crop of non-institutional suckers to hop into the meat grinder.
DJT's corporeal ticker.
Watching Trump's economy "tank" may be amusing but a lot of people are being hurt; not all of them "deserving".
Would a crypto crash alone be enough to tank the economy?
There is a lot of borrowed money in cryptocurrency and a lot of the same people have borrowed money in the stock market and AI (arrogant ignorance). Cryptocurrency just looks like the "first domino".
Sounds bad!
If people would treat AI as a tool that must be validated before use instead of something magical, we would be better off. For that matter, we need to rein in the atrocious magical thinking on Wall Street.m too.
I have shorted both of them, not by very much but I am doing well,
How do you spell Ponzy?
Ponzi
Tesla too, if possible.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DJT/
Less than $11 a share.
I love that 👍👍
Sorry.
AI .. is not a bubble.
It's math.
So .. well .. surf the wave or drown in it.
Your call.
There's a big difference between the ultimate technology of AI and the current overhyped investment in AI companies. In order to make that money back, they have to charge their customers an insane amount of money.
China has a much better grasp of AI (development, usability, practical applications) than these bloated American tech companies.
Sorry, but it's both. It's a technology based on math, with uses far divorced from the marketing and investment hype. Good luck surfing the financial tsunami that's coming.
I hate to root for economic problems that among other impacts will hurt my own bottom line, but if that's the price - literally - for saving democracy, then I say - to quote W - "Bring it on."
My thoughts exactly. I am ready for the crash, no matter my personal cost. We need it.
Problem is some of us have a bit of a buffer and some do not, when the economy crashes, which now seems more and more inevitable, there will be a huge die off of markets and humans.
When I hear people on the right clearly saying bring it on, I’m ready, I’m curious why those who think they’re high enough on the hill that they won’t have to learn to swim and it’s only the ‘others’ who will suffer…. I think of countries I’ve travelled in where lots of money or the illusion of it DOESN’T keep them above the flood line, their quality of life still involves closing their eyes and pinching their noses.
I don’t wanna live in a world where the starving are littering the streets.
But it's better than anarchy and blood in the streets.
It IS anarchy and blood in the streets.
There is already blood on the streets. Just ask Venezuela. The naked imperialism of the US is a greater threat to the world's poor than a crypto-recession. That is not even mentioning the gross anti-climate abuses of the US - the world's dirtiest nation, by consumption.
We already have that and the good people of the Twin Cities are showing us the way.
I considered this aspect too. Data shows a 1% increase in unemployment is historically linked to a 1-1.6% increase in suicides and a 3.3-3.6% increase in drug overdoses. But looking at the policies of the two parties, in the long term, I believe the policies of Democrats are more helpful to those most in need of help.
It won’t come to that.
Homelessness has increased 170% in the city where I live amazingly before covid (2019)...I live in a city with the highest homeless rate in the US....Memphis apparently outnumbers us in homicides, despite ICE's presence. Our country is a f-ked up mess and a bunch of grifters in charge is NOT going to make it any better.
well said. Thank you.
Unless you're relying on the stock market's performance for your everyday living expenses, just hold on - don't panic. No one will have really suffered a loss unless they sell it at a loss. Odds are good that sane leadership will return to DC in the near future and there will be a long-term recovery and values will rebound. (If you're invested in crypto, gold, or futures, not so certain....)
Sympathies to those who will be suffering.
Good advice, Dave. Having been an investor during the dot.com bubble bursting and the Great Recession, I've gotten used to focusing on the long run ... of course, as Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." ;-)
Why gold, Dave? Can you explain that to me?
Gold price is being pumped up by fears of a weak dollar and market collapses. Its value is likely being inflated by the very things that it is hedging against. Not sure what will happen to the price if/when folks start cashing out their inflated gold....
We can't assume that a financial crash will get rid of MAGA. It should since they're the one's who are driving the bus off the cliff, but life is way more complicated. Never underestimate ignorance.
So true. After the own-goals of the Bush 2 era, Republicans should have been out of power for a generation. But they tripled down on their foolishness instead.
Your so spot on, 😂 who’d ever think we’d suffer a loss just to see trump lose, i root for it all the time! 🤣💙🌻✌🏽
I agree with you. At 79 I cannot afford to see my assets tank too much but if that saves my country then I shall consider it a good long term investment. And hope I am here to enjoy it!
Few years younger than you, but fortunate enough to be in a position where I don't have to worry about my assets. Hope all turns out well for you and for our country.
Ya speak for yourself. You'll survive the next 3 yrs honey
I like to share with you that the US only had Cargo Cult Democracy by design. We need reformations to get closer to a system that actually represents the votes by counting them truthfully, like money.
https://www.trashwalker.org/blog/cargo-cult-democracy/
But the good news is the Trump coin is now down 81% in the last 12 months. There may be some unhappy investors in the UAE (and MAGA world).
It was never an investment for them - it was a straight up bribe.
Or, the investment was the bribe. I wonder if they laugh about him.
In January 2022 DJT (trump's truth social stock) hit a high of $101.87. Today it closed at $10.90. If this were any other stock in the world, NASDAQ would be talking about removing it from the board.
Love that, music to my ears! 💙
It still baffles me that the installation of a free and open-source software instance of Mastodon, which is the core of Truthsocial, was allowed to be listed on the stock market at all.
For the UAE it was just a bribe. For MAGA they don’t mind everyone else suffering; now they can suck up a bit of suffering themselves.
Most of MAGA isn't invested in the market. And most of them will be happy to see the "elites", who they suppose are the only stock holders, hurt.
Nobody running a major pension fund should be investing in crypto.
Of course, I hear stupider things every day....
That shows you that Republicans aren't stupid so much as they are evil: they know better than to trust Trump with *their* money. They know it's a scam.
Good! I hope. They all got greedy believing what trump says about, you’ll be so rich, just do whatever he says, what a scam, as you listen to him, he’s raided their bank accounts. Maybe now they’ll see the truth of “everything trump touches dies” It’s about time they smartened up to what that fucks doing. 💙✌🏽
This is bad for investors, but not the Trump family as they received nice tradable Dollars in exchange for selling their meme coins. When (not if) these coins reach zero, the Trumps will still have all of those nice Dollars and investor will have....nothing.
I've said for years that Crypto is just Beanie Babies for tech bros.
but at least Beanie Babies are cute and cuddly...
Unlike tech bros...
And it will fall in value the same way.
Crypto is excellent for money laundering, so it’s a lot worse than Beanie Babies.
See my comment above. It's worse than Beanie Babies. It's downright scary.
Don't forget New Yorkers, Kirsten Gillibrand wanted very much to get onboard the Crypto train -- don't let her off the hook if its derailment causes her to change position. Meanwhile, sigh, my Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno got himself elected on the back of Crypto bro money. Here's hoping Sherrod Brown makes it back in now that the Crypto bros are tapped out.
Yes - Sherrod Brown is just the best! From a Canadian 🇨🇦 watcher!
Notice the crypto industry supported ads attacking Sherrod Brown did not mention cryptocurrency… that says a lot about how popular it really is.
Please consider urging the AGs in RI, VA, and IL to begin criminal indictments for “Misprision of Treason” against all relevant suspects.
“Anyone with knowledge of treason who fails to report it can be charged with misprision of treason, punishable by up to seven years in prison.”
Miller, Wiles, Hegseth, etc. don’t have immunity and 47 can’t pardon them.
This criminal charge applies to misprision of treason at the state OR federal level. You DO NOT have to be a resident of those states to file formal complaints. AGs need to take action now.
Virginia (§ 18.2-482): Class 6 felony for failing to report known treason within a reasonable time. Email: mailoag@oag.state.va.us
Rhode Island (11-43-3): Explicitly prohibits the misprision of treason: ag@riag.ri.gov
Illinois: References misprision of treason in relation to state treason laws. No direct email address. Use this form. https://forms.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/Forms/OAG_ContactUs
Additionally, federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2382) criminalizes the misprision of treason against the United States.
When I was a middle school guidance counselor, responsible for investigating incidents of HIB (harassment, intimidation, bullying), we focused on the underlings instead of the kingpins. It didn’t take long for the house of cards to collapse. Maybe that will work here?
(The following states have Misprision of Treason laws but red leadership)
Louisiana (La. R.S. 14:114): Defines it as the concealment or failure to disclose treason, punishable by up to 10 years at hard labor.
Florida (876.33): Defines it as a third-degree felony to conceal treason and fail to report it to the Governor or a judge.
Nevada (NRS 196.030): Category C felony for concealing knowledge of treason.
What is the act/conduct that you claim satisfies the elements for a criminal charge of "treason?"
So what about dear Messrs. Bessent and Lutnick, the crypto boosters and their brave new world of harnessing government for their own profits? Or is Lutnick now a bit distracted by the excitement over his vacation on Epstein's island? Such honorable people...and competent, aren't they? With a president like Donald Trump, and Cabinet Secretaries like these, and a new Fed Chair in Ken Warsh who believes in AI momentum for the economy and even (according to the man who wants him in that job) looks the part ...happy days are here again? (Sorry, bad joke. That was a Democratic Party song, of course, from the old days.)
Did you see this story: Trump is going to change the rules so he can fire career federal civil servants who are impeding his plans.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-opb-kupor-civil-service-changes-9.7075508
Yes, thanks. There was an MC (conférencier or public presenter and host) in Weimar Germany, Werner Finck, of Die Katakombe, who dared to speak out against the Nazis during the great era of the nightclubs depicted in "The Blue Angel" (1930) on which "Cabaret" was later based. He used to raise his hand in the Hitler salute over his head and say: "We're up to here with this sh-t." That sounds right for Trump's America.
Yes, I saw that. I'm a retired Fed and have a son in Federal service. This will certainly be litigated right out of the box. It remains to be seen how soon it gets to the Supine Six. I hope it ends up like Schedule F. Meanwhile, a blue tsunami in November would be a helpful development.
Hari Prasad, I really look forward to your most clever comments!!!
I read both you and Charles Stross, so I have known Bitcoin was illusory garbage from the start.
The first time someone told me about bitcoin, I just laughed and walked away SMDH.
By the time a family member told me he had invested in bitcoin but lost $4000 which he could not afford to lose, it was too late for him. I helped him out but we agreed no more buying sh*t on the Internet.
it was intended to solve a problem at the time, which is that big banks (and brokers) had proved themselves criminally negligent at managing people's money and mortgages, thus the crash of 2008. So - a method of getting rid of the intermediaries sounded tempting.
BUT it's way too complex and slow, not to mention - as it has turned out - not as secure as hoped and subject to theft and loss and subject to tracing - so Dr K is right: no legal use case, really. The banks came back, with better risk management, and can do what BTC can do faster and cheaper and more securely.
How was Bitcoin supposed to solve the problem of bank/broker negligence in managing money and mortgages?
Crypto puts all responsibility for managing money and security into completely unmonitored and anonymous private hands.
Thus the owner has perfect freedom to use their money to fund assassinations or buy child porn, drugs, or slaves.
Just for fun, an old story about life 'free' of overbearing law enforcement:
http://www.larryniven.net/?q=cloak-of-anarchy
(Clue-Think Hobbes/Leviathan.)
Understandable that drug dealers/criminals might use Crypto for their transactions. But that doesn't answer the question regarding bank/broker negligence in managing money.
Crypto goes from insufficient regulation and oversight to NO regulation/oversight. See how that makes everything better? /S
IMHO, the solution for insufficient regulation of overly large corporations is to structure corporate/partnership/entity taxes to specifically disfavor bigness, eg a graduated tax on GROSS income, which is much harder to fiddle than 'profits'.
If companies the size of Exxon, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc., were taxed at 20% of their gross income, they would find ways to break up into 50 smaller companies (still huge!!) that would perforce compete with each other, and disaster in one would not be large enough to crash everything.
(cf Lehman Brothers 2008)
FTC Monopoly enforcement is too weak, too uncertain, and much too slow to be effective.
Personally, I have been on the investment sidelines waiting for the Trump market collapse.
In my experience, sitting out seldom pays off. This past year saw dramatic share growth. Even with a correction, the additional shares my dividends bought will sustain my lifestyle.
You would have done even better had you invested almost anywhere else in the world. Most foreign markets vastly outperformed the US last year.
A fair amount of my investments are in European stocks. You're correct - they did much better last year than U.S. stocks.
Everytime Trump or his goons and goombahs said something negative about Canada or Canadians, I took the opportunity to rotate out of the S&P 500 and into Canadian stocks (via ETFS that focus on Canada). Why ditch the S&P you ask? Well, the SEC had a fraud inquiry into Coinbase during Biden's administration. As soon as Trump took office the SEC ditched the fraud probe. Guess which company made it into the S*P in 2025? Coinbase.
Good to know. I'll have to see what's available in Vanguard - the news from Canada seems to be pretty good these days. Perhaps I should also check into Sweden (SAAB).
Rotating out of US into CA and EU avoids much of the over-investment in AI and is an ESG investment in the present environment.
Check out JP Morgan's BetaBuilder Canada ETF (ticker = BBCA). It went down today, mainly because Canadian mining companies whose shares it holds were down in the general commodity slump. But I've been impressed with its performance as a counter to what I believe to be a thoroughly corrupted S&P 500. Nvidia, for example, is engaged in mythologizing its revenue streams as somehow organic when they are anything but. Don't count on Trump's SEC to do anything about it though.
And, many EU stocks are creating actual value while their governments are based on rule of law and democratic principles. Investing in the EU is my ESG.
A wise person always diversifies. Who says that I didn't?
Yes, that is common wisdom, and you will probably be correct. However, the possibility of a major market correction is likely. The market is way overvalued. And then there is the Trump effect. He does have a track record of destroying value.
I presume you're talking about real investments, not bitcoin. If so, I'm with you; my Vanguard funds have done well this past year. If we have another crash like 2008, I'll still be OK.
If there's a major slump, let's hope it's over by the time we old guys have to take our RMDs.
Love dem dividends!
I also have significant assets at Vanguard. I was happy with 2025 but given the ongoing chaos in Washington I’m starting to broaden my exposure to global markets.
I think that there are a whole lot of young men losing money right now. The only people I've ever known who invested in crypto are young men. Like day traders, their vision of investing is often thinly-veiled gambling.
It was because trump was fraudulently, corruptly - probably illegally! - deprived of the Westchester Kennel Club BEST IN SHOW award he so richly deserved
First crypto crashes, then the AI bubble pops, then Trump has an aneurysm...
Oh it's going to be so much fun when the AI bubble pops. This is going to kill all the worst people.
some people are just way too optimistic (but fingers crossed...)
Living in Minneapolis/St. Paul, optimism is the only thing that keeps one going...
The odds of “all of the above” occurring are actually very high!
What do the prediction markets have on the aneurysm?
Six to four on it happening within the next three years.
Polymarket has the following bet:
https://polymarket.com/event/trump-out-as-president-before-2027
The rules do not specify why he is out.
No.
Sorry, AI is _real_.
Some folk have gotten ahead of their skis in the short term. But, eff me, Elon is right. Again.
So...
Stocks are falling.
Gold is falling.
Silver is falling.
Crypto is falling.
No one is rushing out to buy our bonds.
Where are people putting their money?
I'm invested in mattress futures.
Like Andrew Tobias said...canned tuna fish and toilet paper always a good investment.
Sound advice!
Gold is at an all time high. Silver is pretty high, too.
I guess you haven't been paying attention to what either one has been doing during the past week. Silver fell 27% last Friday and 16% today. Gold's drops were also significant, though not of the same magnitude.
Those are not normal market moves.
Significant movement is apparently one monster of a whale in China. Made a mint off gold and is now net short $300M in Silver futures, and that is not nearly as liquid of a market. Get ready for more wild times ahead.
Under their mattresses at this point.
What do you put under your mattress?
Back into margin account balances they borrowed it from. At least for precious metals that’s definitely what happened.
It's cool. Lean into AI.
I started using Claude Opus 4.6 today. It is much, much better than 4.5.
The LLMs/AIs are now being developed by the LLMs/AIs. Exponential improvement enabled by exponential improvement.
One key to navigating life successfully is properly adapting to exponential growth functions, the good ( Moore's Law ) and the bad ( the COVID epidemic ).
AI is "one of the good ones".
I'm sure that with it contributing to a ruined environment, increasing the already high cost of energy, and the coming millions of displaced workers, everyone will agree it's all worth it, so you can enjoy your "improved" life now.
We are finally, really, truly entering Kurzweil's "singularity".
It will be scary. It will be disruptive. But the benefits that we will realize from the coming changes will greatly outweigh the down sides.
Abroad.
In socks.
Vanguard "FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund Admiral" mutual fund.
You are saying 'buy'?
I am saying it's doing well and I have bought. I will continue to do so while remaining diversified. I just took the required minimal distribution from my IRA out of U.S. stock funds and bought European stocks in this fund outside of my IRA. I've had money invested in this fund as part of my IRA for years and, as many people have pointed out (including Paul) European stocks (including this fund) have climbed about twice as much as U.S. stocks have over the last year.
As Vanguard says "Past performance is no guarantee."
Thank you for that considered and generous reply.
And for the total lack of snark.
There's also the Vanguard ESG International Stock ETF.
I have a bit of money in that one too, but it contains a mix of stocks that include U.S. companies. The "ex-US" fund does not. Still, the International Stock fund did nearly as well last year as the ex-US fund did ( about 1% lower).
Stocks are not currently falling.
I confess I am a bit surprised. There aren't any fundamentals, but a surefire way to prop up the price of anything is for someone to direct the government to buy it. I fully expected we'd see Trump direct some branch of the federal government to (illegally) buy bitcoins or whatever other crypto at some magic price to maintain the illusion of value. That he didn't (yet) is a small consolation, I suppose.
I'm not surprised. The whole point of Trumpcoin etc. was to bribe Trump and his minions, but they know that the actual "cryptocurrency" is useless unless it's converted to real money. I doubt they're holding it any more.
Now the Silicon Valley true believers? Yeah, they're probably holding because in spite of being "smart" guys they're also very dumb.
Yeah, but on a base level, they don’t want to piss off their base. They know on some level that it’s useless, but there’s nothing stopping these kinds of people from directing the federal government to buy it at whatever value they choose. It amounts to handing public money to their followers but… since when has brazen corruption been a reason for these people not to do something?
Of course Trump still holds a lot of Trumpcoin. He didn't pay anything for it and it is still a mechanism to receive bribes. He can't sell it without the price collapsing (more) unless there is a briber on the other end of the transaction buying around the same time. They don't actually have to pass the crypto on to him effect the bribe.
that was the point of the 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' - always a (bad) way to let the surprisingly few very very heavy investors in BTC to cash out in real US money.
Yep. I’m fairly surprised they didn’t do it (did they?).
Meep! Meep!
Please tell us your cat's name, and also please put the photo of the cat interposing him or herself between you and your laptop some place we can link to.
His name is Jack.
Now I know!
If you click on Paul's name as it appears just under the title of this article, you will see a large version of the photo of Jack in Paul's lap. You can probably capture the photo as a JPEG or something (try right-clicking on the image).
Thank you!
I have a cat who is, um, clingy, and I often have the same look on my face that Paul has in that photo.