NC Renegades

Oooftah…. chickennuggetmomma on the ole TT bringing the facts. pic.twitter.com/EJlrw50Cje

— Shipwreck (@shipwreckshow) April 7, 2025

My knees started cracking louder while I watched this video pic.twitter.com/83QrPrOO3G

— MERICA MEMED (@Mericamemed) April 7, 2025

🚨 BREAKING: NBC reports that the Senate bill to limit a President’s tariff power now has 7 Republican sponsors.

🔴 Grassley
🔴 Moran
🔴 Murkowski
🔴 McConnell
🔴 Tillis
🔴 Young
🔴 Collins

— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) April 7, 2025

That ruckus you hear in the capital markets is the sickening howl of the Fugazy Economy meeting its extinction. Fugazy means fake, unreal, dishonest, misaligned to what societies need to thrive. Fugazy means mis-using the time-value of things that purport to be wealth to multiply fake wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. The pernicious effects of that system are visible all across the ruined landscape of our country, a nation of broken cities, failed towns, and a demoralized populace.

Mr. Trump apparently aims to convert the expiring Fugazy economy into a production economy — yikes! — based on making things of value, and perhaps more importantly, of people at all social levels having meaningful roles in the making and moving of things. The Trump tariffs are the first big step in a process that is already generating a whole lot of friction, heat, and ferment. The aim of the tariffs is straightforward: the end of a trade regime that punishes and cripples American production.

The response so far is heartening. Many other countries suddenly seek new trade arrangements with the USA, correctly sensing that Mr. Trump means bidness. (This ain’t no Mud Club. . . this ain’t no foolin’ around. . . .) It’s even possible that these readjustments will happen so swiftly that the tariff differentials will be a wash before summer, and everybody will be, at least, on a firm footing, knowing what the clear new rules say. This new disposition of things required forceful incentives to change entrenched, harmful practices.

More…

Liberation Day has come and gone. If Trump’s War on Foreign Goods (WOFG) is genius, we’ll take idiocy. It’s a stitched-together concatenation based on meretricious metrics, a Son of Smoot-Hawley that will ensure Trump a place in the presidential pantheon right next to Herbert Hoover. Like Hoover, Trump has a business background; like Hoover he never shuts up, and like Hoover he will preside over a disastrous tariff regime.

Start with the metrics the Trump team used to calculate the tariffs for each country. How did they determine a trading partner’s tariff on U.S. exports to that country? They didn’t take the country’s actual tariff rate, then perhaps add in a guesstimate percentage for non-tariff trade barriers and go from there. Rather, they took the U.S. trade deficit with that country and divided it by that country’s exports to the U.S. Thus China, which levies an average 7.3 percent tariff on U.S. goods, and Europe, where the average tariff is 5.2 percent, have 67 and 39 percent tariffs on U.S. exports according to Trump. If they had no actual tariffs or trade barriers at all, they would still have close to those percentages. (Zero tariffs would probably lower their trade surpluses a bit.)

More…

I ask Grok if I had invested $10,000 in oil futures on February 3, 2025, how much would I have lost?

To determine how much you would have lost if you invested $10,000 in oil futures on February 3, 2025, we need to consider the price movement of oil futures between February 3, 2025, and today, April 7, 2025. Since I don’t have exact daily price data for oil futures contracts in that specific period, I’ll outline a general method to calculate this based on available information and reasonable assumptions. Here’s how it works:

Oil futures are typically traded on exchanges like the CME Group (e.g., WTI Crude Oil Futures), with each contract representing 1,000 barrels of oil. The price is quoted in dollars per barrel, and your investment would depend on how many contracts you could purchase with $10,000, factoring in margin requirements (since futures are leveraged instruments). Your profit or loss would then depend on the price change per barrel, multiplied by the number of barrels you control.

Step-by-Step Approach:

1. Initial Investment and Margin: Futures trading doesn’t require you to pay the full value of the contract upfront; instead, you post an initial margin (typically 5-10% of the contract’s value). Let’s assume a conservative margin of 10%. If the oil futures price on February 3, 2025, was, say, $70 per barrel, one contract (1,000 barrels) would have a notional value of $70,000, and the margin required would be $7,000. With $10,000, you could afford to buy roughly 1 contract, with some cash left over.
2. Price Change: We need the price of oil futures on February 3, 2025, and today, April 7, 2025. While exact prices for those dates aren’t in my data, broader trends suggest oil prices have declined in 2025. For example, Brent crude oil reportedly decreased by 14.94% ($11.15 per barrel) from the start of 2025 to early April, and WTI crude oil dropped by 13.13% ($9.42 per barrel) over a similar period. If we assume WTI futures were around $70 per barrel on February 3 (a plausible mid-range value based on early 2025 benchmarks), a 13% drop would bring the price to approximately $60.90 by April 7.
3. Profit/Loss Calculation: If you bought 1 contract at $70 per barrel (total value $70,000) and the price fell to $60.90 per barrel (total value $60,900), your loss would be:
   • $70 – $60.90 = $9.10 per barrel
   • $9.10 × 1,000 barrels = $9,100 loss Since your initial investment was $10,000 (covering the margin), a $9,100 loss means you’d be left with $900 of your original capital, assuming no additional margin calls or fees.
4. Adjustments: If prices dropped more sharply (e.g., to $60 or lower, as some sources suggest WTI hit $61.99 on April 4), your loss could approach or exceed $10,000, potentially wiping out your investment and triggering a margin call. Conversely, if the drop was less severe, your loss would be smaller.

Estimated Answer:

Based on the trend of a 13% decline in WTI prices from early 2025 to now, and assuming a starting price of $70 per barrel on February 3, you would have lost approximately $9,100 on a $10,000 investment in one WTI futures contract by April 7, 2025. This is a rough estimate, as exact daily prices and your specific contract (e.g., May 2025 delivery) would refine the figure. Transaction costs, maintenance margin requirements, and market volatility could also affect the outcome.

For a precise calculation, you’d need the exact futures price on February 3, 2025, for the contract you chose, and the closing price on April 7, 2025, adjusted for any rollover costs if the contract expired. If you have those specifics, I can refine the answer further!

The DOW just crossed into a bear market.

WARNING: Speaking to Matteo Salvini at the Lega Congress in Italy this weekend, Elon Musk issued a dire warning to the people of Europe: end mass migration before it is too late. pic.twitter.com/gEwueftTAD

— @amuse (@amuse) April 7, 2025

News 📰🚨
Emergency Fed meeting
📆 1130 AM.
They know this is not a garden variety global financial sell off. This is
the brink of collapse if
not managed properly.
The skeletons in the closet of banks around the world are being laid bare for all to see .
US Banks:… https://t.co/MP4yPvehey

— Tom Moore (@junogsp7) April 7, 2025

This is CRAZY

Shawn Ryan “There are 480,000 VA employees and there are 450,000 active duty army veterans all over the country have been dying waiting to get treatment, commit suicide”

“With 480,000, that's 30,000 more than the active army members”

“VA has been on high risk… pic.twitter.com/B5RosEKVLG

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 7, 2025

Stock markets today

🇭🇰 Hong Kong: -13.6%
🇹🇼 Taiwan: -9.6%
🇯🇵 Japan: -9.5%
🇮🇹 Italy: -8.4%
🇸🇬 Singapore: -8%
🇸🇪 Sweden: -7%
🇨🇳 China: -7%
🇨🇭 Switzerland: -7%
🇩🇪 Germany: -6.8%
🇪🇸 Spain: -6.4%
🇳🇱 Netherlands: -6.2%
🇦🇺 Australia: -6.2%
🇫🇷 France: -6.1%
🇬🇧 UK: -5.2%
🇲🇾 Malaysia:…

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) April 7, 2025

THE FORT KNOX QUESTION: PRELUDE TO A NEW SYSTEM?

In 1944, the world's most powerful leaders gathered in Bretton Woods to discuss the future and write the rules of a new global monetary order.

There's one critical detail many forget…

The United States controlled the lion's… pic.twitter.com/fFIJOuHnKE

— Gold Telegraph ⚡ (@GoldTelegraph_) April 7, 2025

From Zerohedge:

10Y yields almost erased entire drop. Is a large sovereign starting to sell?

From Grok:

The 10-year Treasury yield erasing its drop suggests investors are selling bonds, driving yields up as bond prices fall, per Investopedia’s explanation of their inverse relationship.

A large sovereign selling could mean a government is offloading U.S. Treasuries, possibly to raise cash or shift investments, impacting global markets, as sovereign bonds reflect a country’s risk profile.

This movement follows China’s market turmoil, with the Hang Seng China Index dropping 9.1% at open, hinting at broader economic concerns influencing Treasury yield shifts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senator Tom Coburn outlined a scenario in 2012 (excerpt shown from The Debt Bomb) where US Treasuries were sold by Japan on a Sunday night. Within a half-hour, a run on US Treasuries started and then spread to Europe. Americans woke up on Monday to find the US dollar devalued by one-third.

Sometimes scenarios become reality.

BREAKING: Circuit breakers have been triggered in Japan's Nikkei 225 and TOPIX stock market indices.

We are seeing the market's first circuit breakers since March 2020. https://t.co/STlqrVo2NQ

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 6, 2025