Odds and Ends — 8 May 2025

preparedwombat(78)

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Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

Stripe Unveils Stablecoin Payment Accounts, AI Features During Annual User Event

Dollar Faces $2.5 Trillion ‘Avalanche’ of Asian Sales

Top Trump Crypto Buyers Are Likely Foreign

Coronavirus and Public Health:

RFK Jr. Takes Aim at Covid Shots for Kids, Worrying Vaccine Experts

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1919935516599816391
- DrEricDing

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/1919895334462910727
- karlykingsley

Trump Taps ‘MAHA’ Influencer for Surgeon General

https://twitter.com/MeachamDr/status/1920227081671094457
- MeachamDr

Politics:

U.S. Discusses Leading Post-War Gaza

The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza.
The ‘high-level’ consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a U.S. official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged.
According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a U.S.-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground.

What could possibly go wrong?

https://twitter.com/jpodhoretz/status/1919806501465587943
- jpodhoretz

Trump Is a Socialist

The president thinks the U.S. is one big Macy’s—with him in charge.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1920228537534922926
- kyledcheney

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1919817674177016024
- ReichlinMelnick

Federal judge temporarily blocks deportations to Libya

https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1919888574725361966
- JamesSurowiecki

https://twitter.com/bad_takes/status/1919917402243961102
- bad_takes

No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines

Authoritarianism is harder to recognize than it used to be. Most 21st-century autocrats are elected. Rather than violently suppress opposition like Castro or Pinochet, today’s autocrats convert public institutions into political weapons, using law enforcement, tax and regulatory agencies to punish opponents and bully the media and civil society onto the sidelines. We call this competitive authoritarianism — a system in which parties compete in elections but the systematic abuse of an incumbent’s power tilts the playing field against the opposition. It is how autocrats rule in contemporary Hungary, India, Serbia and Turkey and how Hugo Chávez ruled in Venezuela.
The descent into competitive authoritarianism doesn’t always set off alarms. Because governments attack their rivals through nominally legal means like defamation suits, tax audits and politically targeted investigations, citizens are often slow to realize they are succumbing to authoritarian rule…
…America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism. The Trump administration’s weaponization of government agencies and flurry of punitive actions against critics has raised the cost of opposition for a wide range of Americans.

https://twitter.com/thematthill/status/1920169521509191774
- thematthill

https://twitter.com/JulieDo24718056/status/1920242260316205114
- JulieDo24718056

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Global Shipping Is Grinding to a Standstill

There aren’t shortages of goods in U.S. stores yet, but if the deterioration in global shipping is any indication, they are on the way.

https://twitter.com/Tazerface16/status/1920199430319591468
- Tazerface16

Trump Has Normalized 10% Tariffs

There has been a mantra spreading among weary corporate executives who are becoming resigned to President Trump’s tariffs while still hoping to avoid the worst of their effects: Ten percent is the new zero.
The statement refers to the 10 percent tariff that Mr. Trump put in place on most U.S. imports one month ago. Such a significant increase in U.S. tariffs would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But it no longer seems like such a big deal, compared with the truly large tariffs that Mr. Trump has already imposed or threatened elsewhere.

Will Trump Pretend to Fix What He Broke?

The Trump administration is planning to announce its first trade deal today, with Britain. Except it won’t be a deal; more of a “deal.” Reportedly it will mainly be a “framework” for an actual deal that may or may not happen sometime in the future. This is the tariff equivalent of “concepts of a plan” for health care.
In other words, this will be smoke and mirrors, an attempt to persuade the gullible that Trump’s tariffs are actually working. Markets — driven by small investors who seem desperate to believe that the people in charge have some idea what they’re doing — may briefly bounce on the announcement.