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#1

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by viper37 - Today at 01:30:08 PM

Seems the US is running out of time too.

Trump ally warns US economy not strong enough to cope with Iran war

One-time pick to lead key statistics body EJ Antoni says inflation was 'worse than we thought' even before conflict 

Donald Trump's one-time pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics has said the US economy is too weak to handle oil at $100 per barrel as he warned of rising consumer prices triggered by the war in Iran.
"I don't think this is an economy that is going to be able to handle $100 a barrel for oil, it's just not," EJ Antoni told the FT. 
"The economy is weaker than we thought it was, and inflation is worse than we thought it was," he added in a call on Wednesday, shortly before the Federal Reserve's March rate-setting meeting. 
"The lower energy prices that we saw in 2025 helped put downward pressure on prices throughout the economy. Now . . . we're going to see higher energy prices have exactly the opposite effect and put upward pressure on prices throughout the economy." 
Trump picked Antoni, the conservative Heritage Foundation's chief economist, to lead the US labour statistics agency in August, shortly after firing the former commissioner for a gloomy jobs report the president claimed was "rigged".
He abruptly withdrew Antoni's nomination a month later and ultimately settled on government economist Brett Matsumoto, whose confirmation is subject to Senate approval.
Antoni's remarks on the health of the world's largest economy come a day after the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center resigned in protest at the Iran war, marking the first significant defection from the Trump administration since the conflict began.
Republicans are meanwhile growing increasingly worried that high oil prices — Brent crude jumped 5 per cent to almost $110 a barrel on Wednesday — will dent their chances in the midterm elections. Petrol prices at the pump have surged to $3.84 a gallon from $2.92 a month ago, while diesel has exceeded $5 — exerting a heavy toll on US consumers and businesses.
Economic data collected before the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran has done little to ease those concerns. 
US GDP in the fourth quarter of 2025 was last week revised to 0.7 per cent from an initial estimate of 1.4 per cent, while data released on Wednesday showed US wholesale prices rose at a faster clip than expected in February, even before the war began. The US economy last month shed 92,000 jobs, in a sharp slide that eroded most of January's gains.
Antoni highlighted "a lack of job growth" in the US, some of which he attributed to last year's cuts to the federal workforce, and renewed his attacks on the BLS, which he likened to "a random number generator" in a post on X last May.
"You need a complete and total top-down review of everything from the data collection to the data processing and even the data dissemination, because there have been a few issues with leaks," he said. In January, Trump posted some of December's US jobs figures hours before their official release. 
Antoni refused to be drawn on how Trump told him he was no longer his pick to lead the BLS, saying he would "rather keep those conversations confidential".

#2

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by viper37 - Today at 01:28:42 PM

Yeah, it's fake, but telling that it's hard to tell.

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.A3MX8KF

Ah fuck.  I've been had again.  I should better check my sources with these fake news stuff.  It looked so real.

#3

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Syt - Today at 01:24:46 PM

Haven't been to the Nordics in ETS2 yet.

But here's Hungarian landscapes (I'm using the Promods map mod, plus a gfx mod):




Austrian landscapes:





The Prater bridge in Vienna (original: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yg7F7ddJQKLMSnDV9)



Rotterdam:




What's either Bregenz or Höchst, and the Austrian side of the Swiss border in Höchst (I've crossed there, the little post is accurate, the houses aren't )

#4

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Syt - Today at 12:56:54 PM

Peter Thiel, the man behind JD Vance's brain, is holding a lecture series in Rome on the coming of the Antichrist, which he identifies as forces behind efforts to regulate AI.

The above is an actual sentence which describes a true event happening in the world, not a rejected MadLibs fragment or early stage LLM training run output.

You will be delighted to know that he joined the board of directors at General Matter, a nuclear enrichment startup, last year. The company was awarded a $900M contract by the US government for high-assay low enrichment Uranium in January.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/peter-thiel-joins-board-of-enriched-uranium-startup-general-matter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Matter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriched_uranium#High-assay_LEU_(HALEU)

#5

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Legbiter - Today at 12:54:04 PM

Israel bombed the biggest Iranian gas field today. Iran threatened retaliation. 

Looks like a complete dismantling of the Iranian state. They'll retaliate against Gulf energy infrastructure.

#6

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 12:53:31 PM

Seems like regime change is off the table.

#7

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 12:22:43 PM

Peter Thiel, the man behind JD Vance's brain, is holding a lecture series in Rome on the coming of the Antichrist, which he identifies as forces behind efforts to regulate AI.

The above is an actual sentence which describes a true event happening in the world, not a rejected MadLibs fragment or early stage LLM training run output.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Zanza - Today at 12:17:34 PM

Israel bombed the biggest Iranian gas field today. Iran threatened retaliation.   

I read an estimate today that the global economic damage from closing the Straits is 14 billion USD per day. 

#9

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Jacob - Today at 11:58:45 AM

I don't think Trump understands the concept of collaborating, nor on the implications of a long term collaboration (or the ending of same).

He only understands snapping fingers and having minions scurry to obey, and asserting something to be true with sufficient vehemence for his social spheres (online and physical) to agree that's how it is.

The practicalities and logistics of exerting power in the arctic - and the advantages of collaborating - is so far from that mindset that honestly, I don't think this registers as having much significance to Trump.

#10

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 11:50:46 AM

No one wants to give the bad news to the King . . .