Random thoughts #44

Random Thoughts #44

The Chinese economy is a mess. Recently their overlords have started allowing mortgages to be refinanced due to cuts in the central bank’s lending rates. Mind you, this is in the face of a four year contraction in the real estate market. The question is what took so long? The government also announced that the minimum downpayment has been reduced from 25% to 15%. No word if they are also going to adopt Harris’ plan to give first time homebuyers $25,000.

The Chinese are faced with a declining population that will shrink by 240 million by the end of the century. They have hundreds of thousands of empty housing units as a result of state planning, leading to their real estate bust. Their national debt is probably unsustainable eventually leading to a severe economic contraction. China is becoming the poster child on the effects of a planned economy and the folly of heavy subsidization of industry.

As part of its stimulus package, the Chinese government is also lending money to companies for share repurchase in an effort to stimulate its stock market. In this country the left hates stock repurchases and proposed a 2% stock buyback tax. In fact the so-called Inflation Reduction Act contains a 1% excise tax on buybacks. I guess Biden, Schumer and Sanders forgot to consult with Xi on this one.

Showing that they can throw dirt like the leftist media, some conservative outlets are filling their pages with talk about Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband. They are reporting that he impregnated his first wife’s nanny and physically assaulted an ex-girlfriend by “slapping her so hard she spun around.” I wonder if this is fair game given all the press on Trump’s peccadillos.

Did you watch the vice presidential debate? I didn’t. I watched a baseball game instead. One, I hate political speech. Two, I like baseball. Even though the Braves have been eliminated, I will still watch. I am one of the few people that if a baseball game and a pro football game are on, I will watch baseball regardless of what team is playing. 

Isn’t it interesting that the best player in baseball is Japanese?

Isn’t it also interesting that since there are so few American blacks playing baseball that the baseball teams at HBCUs are often predominately white?

Why are there so many Australian punters in college football?

As is the case with college baseball, it seems that most of the place kickers at HBCUs are also white.

There are so many things I miss about not having my parents alive. One of them is the annual rivalry between Fort Valley State (Mother’s alma mater) and Savannah State (Dad’s alma mater). This year Fort Valley won 30-0. I can just see Dad having to wear Fort Valley’s colors to church after the loss. Mother would be relentless in her critique of the game highlighting every Savannah State misstep. Poor Dad.

Have you noticed that in the reporting of the war in Gaza that many of the news outlets have stopped saying the phrase after they report that “tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed” that “most of whom are women and children”?

School is back in. I have not seen any reports of student encampments on college campuses and anti-Semitic rallies or attacks on Jewish students. Have you?

I have always read that vice presidents don’t matter. I guess they don’t matter so long as the president is living. But do you think that Tim (Little Bernie) Walz is causing Harris to lose some voters?

I am in the camp of those who are voting against a candidate, rather than voting for one. I do know some ardent Trump supporters. I appear monthly on a local talk show and there is one regular caller who idolizes Trump. I have two close friends who hate Trump and would vote for my German Shorthaired Pointer first. But both really like Harris. Both are progressives and are excited about getting the first progressive president. Ilhan Omar is excited too saying that once Harris is in office, it won’t take much to push her even further to the left. Bernie Sanders has said much the same.

Has Biden fired anyone? Trump had a steady stream of cabinet members but to my knowledge Biden’s cabinet is still intact.

Alan Dershowitz left the democrat party due to its anti-Semitism. He is now an independent who if he were a politician, I would presume would still caucus with the democrats as do Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema. The other “independents” in the senate, Bernie Sanders and Angus King also caucus with the democrats. I wonder if the takeover of the republican party by the anti-trade protectionist Trump wing will cause some republicans to become “independents” yet continue to caucus with the republicans. I would be in that camp.