The Political Thread

[Comrade Khan]

Dow futures down another 1400 after China tarrifs announcement

 

[Comrade Khan]

And JP Morgan raised chances of recession from 40 to 60%

According to cnbc

 

[Comrade Khan]

If you have 401ks start putting ur cash under a mattress

 

[Chris]

U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, beating forecasts, as economists warn of turbulence

The surprise jump in hiring did little to cheer investors after Thursday's historic selloff, with analysts already saying last month's data reflects an economic reality Trump has upended.

www.nbcnews.com

The U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, far more than the 140,000 economists had expected. Unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.2% from 4.1% the month before.

Last month's gains far outnumber the 117,000 roles added in February. Health care, transportation and warehousing were among the sectors that added roles in March, while federal hiring declined amid sweeping cuts to the government's workforce.

The job data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a remarkably resilient U.S. economy, though it's already a snapshot in time. After President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement Wednesday slammed into global markets, analysts say the labor market is likely to enter more uncertain terrain.

 

[Comrade Khan]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

2nd day of crashing

 

[Barry Poppins]

I really hope that now people are realizing just what the fuck is happening.

 

[Chris]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

Stock averages were not helped by comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who said in a speech in Arlington, Virginia, that the central bank would wait and see the effect of President Trump’s tariff blitz before making a move on rates.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said in prepared remarks. “We are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance. It is too soon to say what will be the appropriate path for monetary policy.”

Powell noted that the announced tariffs were “significantly larger than expected.”

“The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” he said. “The size and duration of these effects remain uncertain.”

The Dow was last down more than 1,300 points, extending losses as Powell spoke. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.94%.

 

[Chris]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/04/trumps-extends-tiktok-second-time.html

President Donald Trump on Friday extended a deadline requiring China-based ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok or face an effective ban in the country, marking the second time he has taken such action.

Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that because the TikTok deal “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed,” he is signing an executive order “to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”

“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!),” Trump said in the post.

 

[Samoa Looch]

US Weather Agency Websites Set to Vanish With Contract Cuts

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency is poised to eliminate most websites tied to its research division under plans for the cancellation of a cloud web services contract, a move that could snarl operations at several labs.

A contract for the services across NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research — known as NOAA Research — has been targeted for “early termination,” according to internal documents seen by Bloomberg News. As a result, almost all external websites reliant on Amazon, Google and WordPress services are poised to vanish early Saturday morning in Washington, wiping the bulk of the unit’s work, which includes climate and environmental science research, from public view.

 

[Chris]

It's already had affects in practice with the recent tornados

 

[Barry Poppins]

Anything to kill the poor.

 

[Boomhauer]

I really hope that now people are realizing just what the fuck is happening.

Trump doesn't even know what he is doing. No wonder why our allies hate him.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Kill kill kill kill the poor
Kill kill kill kill the poor
Kill kill kill kill the poor
Ah ha hahaha
Ah ha ha ha ha

 

[Samoa Looch]

I dunno if it was posted yet, or if y'all already seen it, but in case you still wonder about how weird those tariff lists looked:

Be prepared for more genAI involvement in your government.

 

[Samoa Looch]

Trump Shares Video About How He Is 'Purposely Crashing the Stock Market'

Donald Trump shared a video claiming he was intentionally crashing the stock market, prompting confusion from his supporters.

www.rollingstone.com

Financial markets are taking a nosedive for the second straight day amid global panic and investor anxiety over Donald Trump’s implementation of broad tariffs on foreign imports. Economists are warning that the president’s actions are putting not just the United States, but the world at risk of a global recession, and that working class Americans will experience acute economic pain. Fret not, says the president, he is apparently playing chess while the world is playing checkers — whatever that means. Even some of his most prominent GOP supporters aren’t buying it.

On Friday morning, the president shared a link on Truth Social to what appears to be a partially AI-generated video claiming that he was “Purposely CRASHING The Market.”

The one-minute video — originally shared March 15 on TikTok — predates the president’s tariff announcement on Wednesday. It claims that “Trump is crashing the stock market by 20 percent this month, but he’s doing it on purpose. […] Here’s the secret game he’s playing, and it could make you rich.”

The video proposes that Trump is attempting to “push cash into treasuries, which forces the Fed to slash interest rates in May, and those lower rates give the Fed the ability to refinance trillions of debt very inexpensively. It also weakens the dollar and drops mortgage rates. Now it’s a wild chess move, but it’s working.”

“What about his tariffs? I’ll tell you, it’s a genius play,” the video adds. “It actually forces companies to build here to dodge them. It also forces farmers to sell more of their products here in the U.S., to bring grocery prices way down. We’ve already seen this with eggs. Now, remember, 94 percent of all stocks are owned only by 8 percent of Americans. So Trump, he’s taking from the rich short term and handing it to the middle class through lower prices.”

Sound dodgy and completely made up? Don’t stress, the video makes sure to point out that super rich guy Warren Buffett “just said [that] Trump is making the best economic moves he’s seen in over 50 years.” Only Warren Buffett never said that. He actually called Trump’s proposed tariff regime an “act of war.”