Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Mar 12 2023 10:55pm)

5 times? Wtf you doing :D Get a fixed rate tarriff.
Getting gas from Russia makes sense. Getting 60% of gas from Russia, doesn't make sense; Combined with the rest of the strategy.

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Mar 12 2023 10:22pm)

The UK is far less exposed Russian gas. The bigger picture is people is Western Europe living beyond their means for multiple generations, de-industrializing and not being anywhere near self sufficient.

If Scotland was independent it would be far better off in terms of energy. Scotland is a next exporter of energy. Case and point is Norway and its literal trillion euro sovereign oil fund. Instead Scotland got 2 Iraq wars, Afghanistan and bailed out bankers to the tune of billions of pounds. Thanks London.
I say cast away the blood sucking Scots from the mighty English economy and leave them to their own meagre self governance.

Quote (dro94 @ Mar 12 2023 10:40pm)

SNP couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. They run deficits of 12% a year, which the English taxpayer covers, yet they still can't operate a functioning education or healthcare system.

If the majority of Scots wanted independence, then it would be fine to leave, but the majority want to remain. That's despite brexit, thirteen years of tory failure, and a cost of living crisis. If it did happen, we would need to be paid our money back first, though.

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Mar 12 2023 10:52pm)

That's funny considering they have been elected with resounding majorities in 4 consecutive scottish elections.
Not a single election since the 60's have scotland voted to for a Tory government, and yet here we are with what is it now? 5 Tory PMs in a decade? :rofl:

A majority of Scots voted to remain the the EU, and yet here we are.

The Westminster system is the laughing stock of the developed world. The embarrassing part is the only ones who don't realise it are the english themselves :rofl:

By your own summary the Scots are a burden for the UK economy?
You ought to support casting them off along with all the their natural resources.
Unless that's an issue for you? :rofl:

What's up your arse this week anyway? Seething after being routed by the french at Twickenham haha

Quote (ofthevoid @ 13 Mar 2023 01:21)

What's happening with SVB is a function of primarily two things, none of them having much to do with anything international. Higher rates in 2022 has pushed fixed income securities prices down, with pretty much all western banks carrying hundreds of billions in unrealized losses, so when they have deposit outflows they have to realize those losses and have to raise capital to match their asset side of the balance sheet. When they tried doing that, the panic turned into every depositor trying to pull out their money causing a bank run. Deposit outflows currently are impacting the whole banking industry tbh, it's not unique to SVB, most regional banks are having this issue to an extent or another. SVB was particularly vulnerable to deposit outflows because they cater to venture capital and companies that have a very high cash burn rate.

Don't feel like going into the details of it, but it's actually a really big deal what's happening with SVB. It's a 200 billion dollar in asset bank and the government has to 100% step in to insure those deposits are returned to those clients. We have about ~200 million in credit lines extended to SVB but only like ~34 million of those are utilized, not 100% sure we fully recover that 34mm.

But the bigger picture here is this administration is really asleep at the wheel. Yellen and Biden have their priorities completely inverted. Too focused on Ukraine while we have massive issues cropping up here in the US. East Palestine and now this make it abundantly evident.

Quote (Hamsterbaby @ Mar 12 2023 11:53pm)

So can I also say that this Ukraine war and Biden's push for it to continue came at a wrong time especially after spending trillions in Iraq and Afghan ? Coupled with the Covid pandemic where supply chain is being affected since ground zero is in China where most of the worlds items are currently being produce?
Now when the above mentioned is ongoing ( thank God that Covid somewhat ended ) with US government crazy spending on the war and now they are facing these bank problems that is propping up in the United States, they might have to print even more money to bail out some of these banks if not the citizens are going to be affected.
Coupled with raising prices across the board due to inflation, this is basically a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the current overly aggressive trade war with China. And The Chinese and some other countries selling American debt.

If a couple more banks face these problems domestically in the US, will the US start to get Ukraine weary and start making plans to pull out of Ukraine or make them a scapegoat and throw them under the bus i.e the recent New York times accusing them in regards to Nordstream.

My very naive take on this issue.

Quote (ferdia @ 13 Mar 2023 08:32)

I dont see the US backing out of Ukraine any time soon. I'll do some more of that US think tank reading. some of it is fascinating.

Quote (Hamsterbaby @ Mar 12 2023 07:53pm)

So can I also say that this Ukraine war and Biden's push for it to continue came at a wrong time especially after spending trillions in Iraq and Afghan ? Coupled with the Covid pandemic where supply chain is being affected since ground zero is in China where most of the worlds items are currently being produce?
Now when the above mentioned is ongoing ( thank God that Covid somewhat ended ) with US government crazy spending on the war and now they are facing these bank problems that is propping up in the United States, they might have to print even more money to bail out some of these banks if not the citizens are going to be affected.
Coupled with raising prices across the board due to inflation, this is basically a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the current overly aggressive trade war with China. And The Chinese and some other countries selling American debt.

If a couple more banks face these problems domestically in the US, will the US start to get Ukraine weary and start making plans to pull out of Ukraine or make them a scapegoat and throw them under the bus i.e the recent New York times accusing them in regards to Nordstream.

My very naive take on this issue.

Quote (RedFromWinter @ 13 Mar 2023 08:43)

US support for Ukraine has been on the decline since November and I don't think the US constituents will have the stomach to fuel more war with what's going on domestically. We allegedly have some of the most expansive and expensive infrastructure project allocations going on, but not much progress on their goals. We allegedly tightened and fixed corporate and banking practices (again), yet that failed (again). Actual US infrastructure overseen by the FED is failing in deadly catastrophic ways and then responded to in even worse ways. CA is having their 'once in a lifetime' weather event which will surely tighten budgets, hit insurers claims pools, displace families in a housing market that doesn't have enough inventory. There is basically no southern border by the definition of a border which disproportionally taxes those communities and creates ripple of chaos through the country. The US gas reserve has been dipped into to artificially lower prices while Saudi/Iran/China get closer and US/Saudi distant.

Perhaps I'm doom and gloom, but there are a lot of pressures on an already taxed system, and the go-to ways of correcting course are a bit maxed out.

When US people have their $$ impacted, they pay attention to issues. This will likely accelerate the decline in Ukraine support, especially with inept Biden directing the show no one wants to watch.