John T. Reed’s news blog

I continue to marvel at the agida over AI. Politicians want to regulate it. They cannot even define it and if you can’t define it, you cannot regulate it. . Also, AI is letters and numbers, a.k.a. speech. Utterly unregulatable per the First Amendment. . Probably, all the regulating that can be done is already law. No fraud. No libel. No invasion of privacy. No harassment. No stalking. . Tik Tok in China is much nicer than Tik Tok in America. Uh, that's because China is a Communist dictatorship. Parents need to monitor and control what kids see on their...

One of my facebook friends posted the following comment my condemnation of GOP isolationism: Van Hardenbergh Would you fight for Taiwan or encourage friends and family to enlist?. . My answer: The case needs to be made. I did volunteer for Vietnam and do a tour there. I regret it. They were a nation of too many cowards when it came for fighting for their own freedom. . My uncle did the same in the Korean war in a UN alliance. Initially, the South Koreans were a useless military. Then they were mixed in with Americans in the KATUSA program,...

A banana republic presidente noted that the Manhattan DA indicting ends the US criticizing Third World countries for not living up to US political standards. . You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until the US devalues the USD through hyperinflation. People all over America and all over the world put their life savings into US dollars. The day the dollar dies, they will be enraged at us. . They may think they can take us over militarily on that day. No. Nations have caused hyperinflation again and again going back to 400 BC. Germany had it in 1921-2, then kicked...

I just saw a TV ad for annuities on Fox News. . Jeez! . First a definition: An annuity is a contract that promises to pay you a certain amount in USD usually monthly. They are typically sold by insurance companies. Pensions are also widespread annuities. The payments stop when the annuitant(s) die. . Social Security is the most widespread annuity in the US. . U.S. annuities are USD-denominated assets. In USD USD-denominated hyperinflation, USD-denominated assets are financial shooting stars. They burn up and turn to nothing at great speed. On the day the dollar dies, the salient activity is...

There is a wealth of info in the WSJ including in pages of numbers. Occasionally, I focus on one that I never scrutinized before. Today I noticed what is apparently a quarterly feature..The first quarter ended yesterday. Track the Markets: Winers and Losers It is titled “Track the Markets: Winers and Losers.” It is a list of selected stock indexes, bond ETFs, currencies, and commodities. That is a rather eclectic collection of assets. The are ranked by percentage gain in value during the quarter. Here are the top five and bottom five:.Orange juice 30.57%S&P 500 Information Tech 21.49%NASDAQ 100 20.49%S&P...