Disqus - Latest Comments for MutantDog

Re: John Bull and Two Percent - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 16:45:03 -0000

Elsewhere and FYI I had read the consensus 'natural' interest rate was 2.5% plus-or-minus 0.2% in the US. [That would be the discount or Fed funds rate, and is in rough agreement with the Panplus comment.]

Re: A Trillion Here, a Trillion There…

MutantDog — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 13:45:08 -0000

My top concern for the next two decades is Energy. I expect Energy to cost more than it does now. I thnk the "climate change" concerns of the elites will make it so. And yet you're looking at the oil business? It gives me "cognitive dissonance"!

[I hate say anything good about AOC - but her "Green New Deal" is correct, the Poor can't afford to 'get with the program'. (Thinking persons also agree with Karl Marx as an observer of his times if not with his solutions,)]

Have you addressed this 'burning' issue?

Re: Prophets of the High Frontier

MutantDog — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:15:39 -0000

"Science fiction" and Money don't co-exist well. Never have. The question today's discussion raises concerns investment, ownership, organization, economic benefits - that is, Money writ large. It's great that today SpaceX has reduced the price to orbit by about ten times during its existence - and that is and was its actual purpose. I still don't see the hundreds of billions required to attempt a gigawatt scale solar plant, part in orbit and part close to sea level.

Re: Inflation Thoughts - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 13:32:10 -0000

I believe there will be inflation caused by replacing 'fossil fuels' with 'renewables'. I think this problem has become clearer to policy makers. In recent weeks nuclear fission has been re-branded as not emitting CO2. Biden's proposal to waive the 'gas tax' is intriguing; totally bass-ackward if 'climate change' is the existential, generational challenge it was portrayed as being. If I could prevail upon you.. how much of today's elevated WTI price (for example) can you trace back to future predictable changes in demand as what half-hearted changes to energy consumption and production do finally take hold over the 'budgeted' two decades? I don't have a source for that.

Re: Financialized Everything - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 13:14:17 -0000

Could you expand on "Low interest rates ... punish the bottom 70–80% of the economy." Perhaps as a memo to the Democratic Party, home of the modern Tribunes of the Plebs [in theory]. I ask because the point is not obvious to me [either].

Re: Nuclear power has no business case and will make climate change worse

MutantDog — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:26:11 -0000

I Detect bias.

Re: Inflation by the Numbers - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 17:34:04 -0000

Military spending is a jobs program, as Eisenhower observed in decrying the 'military/industrial complex'. Sixty-some years ago - how can that be news ??

Re: Inflation by the Numbers - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 17:11:06 -0000

The aspect of this I find most interesting is the Midterm election. Can the Fed start to clamp down without exacerbating the 'seasonal' trend in favor of the opposition party ? In the face of such a slim majority, and when [bien-pensant] responsible government means more expensive energy in some visible long term, a 'pocketbook issue' if ever there was one ?

Re: Criticism of space cowboys isn’t enough

MutantDog — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 22:19:19 -0000

Is the choice 'space cowboys' or military officers ? Is there a 'third way' that has been demonstrated ? Me, I'll take SpaceX over Blue Origin or Virgin whatever.. the reusable booster is new even if the grid fins are not. I care less about the WHY of launches than about the HOW -0r that they happen.

Re: Shakespeare quotes, rewritten for business class.

MutantDog — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:42:27 -0000

Joking, were you ? One or two of them betray some profundity. [h/t Matt Levine and his 'Money Stuff' jokefest.]

Re: Quantum computing specialist hiring globally after trading breakthrough

MutantDog — Thu, 27 May 2021 15:19:28 -0000

Like DWave and their 'annealing' application, purists would say that's not exactly QC.

Re: BBC owes Chinese people apology for weaving lies over China: Chinese FM - Global Times

MutantDog — Mon, 24 May 2021 14:15:59 -0000

We regret every moment in which we did not tell the Chinese people the truth. <for immediate="" release="">

Re: The reality of America's AI talent shortages

MutantDog — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 22:02:10 -0000

"User experience designers" ? "Project Managers" ? as a critical problem in staffing up Artificial Intelligence ? Surely you jest. That's more of a Bidenesque job program than a serious assessment of the requirements of that still nascent research program...

Re: The F-35 tells everything that's broken in the Pentagon

MutantDog — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 21:23:11 -0000

I have read pilots say, to judge the weapon by its flight characteristics misses the point - the item creates an unparalleled view and command of the battlespace. If you go by Boyd's OODA loop it is without compare. In that case, you'd think most critics (if not all) are "fighting the last war", a cardinal sin for the planner of such contentions. [the possibility exists that the plane IS crap and the 'pilots' in question are reading me propaganda. Would that better reflect the sense of this august House ??]

Re: The New River Gorge: Ancient River, Old Mines, New National Park

MutantDog — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 16:31:02 -0000

I'm glad the BASE Jump Day has been preserved. It is and was a human-driven popular moment on the River. The whole preservation business seems to be innocuous, which again, is how it ought to be.

Re: Warren's Wealth Tax would cost 100 richest Americans $78 billion

MutantDog — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:21:03 -0000

I said 'irrelevant' and you responded.. too kind.

Re: Warren's Wealth Tax would cost 100 richest Americans $78 billion

MutantDog — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:09:11 -0000

78 Billion in extra revenue.. after the party newly empowered has proposed 1.9 Trillion in spending. Roughly 4 percent, at which rate it would take 24.35 years to 'break even' on the Federal budget. Powerfully pointless, punitively pointed.

Re: AI Agents Play "Hide the Toilet Plunger" to Learn Deep Concepts About Life

MutantDog — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 14:25:24 -0000

Still you-and-I are human, and the 'clickbait' title still works. Will robots get 'toilet' humor unprompted ?

Re: The Car Bundle Paradox

MutantDog — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 16:10:56 -0000

I actually clicked on the headline looking for an entirely different article. I was thinking of the basic EV design, the "electric skateboard", and how you might slap different bodies, seating/bedding, accessories, on top of that. Like, for example, the 'new' electric-power provision resources being offered in competing work pickup trucks. That said, you make an interesting point.. for an urban-based person. That will never sell in North-Central Montana.

Re: Inflation and Broken Windows - Mauldin Economics

MutantDog — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 13:47:31 -0000

My sources on epidemiology (probably via the Economist) is that deadly viruses, as they evolve, tend to become more virulent and at the same time less lethal. I do take some comfort in that. Yet, the economic damage has little to do with the virus proper, rather the governmental response to it wreaks the wreckage we perceive. Now I ask, will government take note if lethality is demonstrably lessened ? Not to be paranoid - the "never waste a good crisis" snark may dog the Statists for our lifetimes, in'challah - but can the risk-of-death averse style of disease management, now politically ascendant, heed a diagnosis of 'less deadly' ?

Re: The Mystery of Mistletoe’s Missing Genes

MutantDog — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 14:53:12 -0000

Do genehunters talk with more 'conventional' biologists ? Could a lateral study of parasitic plants' extraction products highlight differences in what the mistletoe takes compared to other parasites ?

Re: US to turn moon into ‘nuclear weapons site’ - Global Times

MutantDog — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 13:48:27 -0000

One thing made me laugh more than the other incredible claims: the idea of a "lunar ecology".

It is typical for the Inferior Power to call for co-operation when it benefits them; and refuse it when they don't see any advantage to it.

Re: Conservative critics mock Jill Biden title controversy

MutantDog — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 23:21:45 -0000

I am, dare I say, a follower, an acolyte, of Robert Anson Heinlein. Gentleman and Sci-Fi author of the Golden Era. His late work betrayed a certain contempt for the degree, "Piled higher and Deeper" .. most in the soft sciences, Education most of all. I regret having to agree with that gentleman's sentiment. [I mean no specific disrespect to Madame Biden... and yet there are people who would have *beef* over THAT honorific. m-dog out.]

Re: Scary Stuff - HumbleDollar

MutantDog — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:27:21 -0000

What we need, as investors, or even speaking for the post-modern world in general, is a change in accounting practice to properly account for 'capitalization of accumulated knowledge'. The reliance on 'arm's length transactions' to record values is hopelessly 'laggy'.

Re: Tesla’s Future Is Not What We Thought

MutantDog — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:50:09 -0000

Has anyone ever considered the Military aspects of mobility and energy types and usage ? Does a quick review of History not suggest that military use informs and develops mobility innovation for the civilian market ? What's going on there ?