Odds and Ends — 12 May 2025

@preparedwombat 78

8 days ago

oddsandends

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

US crypto funds smash old record amid 4-week inflow streak

'WeightWatchers set me up to fail' - Why diet industry is losing to jabs like Ozempic

https://twitter.com/e_galv/status/1921311392193204720

A business owner tested if customers would pay more for American-made. The results were 'sobering.'

https://twitter.com/LuizaJarovsky/status/1921593394440073250

Coronavirus and Public Health:

UK Study Reveals Long-Term Safety of COVID-19 Vaccine

An Insider's View of the Texas Measles Outbreak

Politics:

https://twitter.com/Matthewtravis08/status/1921643962713911707

Israel Plunges Into Darkness

What Netanyahu describes as impending victory is a dive into the morass.

The number of shipping containers that arrived at the nation’s top container port last week was roughly one-third lower than during the same period last year — a sharper decline than during the depths of the Great Recession. More than one-fifth of the giant ships that were scheduled to call in Los Angeles this month have already canceled, and that number is expected to rise.

Europeans Draw the Line on America’s ‘Beautiful Beef’

Trade officials within the European Union are willing to make many concessions to avert a painful and protracted trade war and to avert higher tariffs. They have offered to drop car tariffs to zero, to buy more gas and to increase military purchases. Negotiators have even suggested they could buy more of certain agricultural products, like soy beans.
But Europeans have their limits, and those include America’s treated T-bones and acid-washed chicken breasts.

So Who Won the Trade War?

Critics will inevitably see this as yet another capitulation from Trump, who — let’s not forget — had been insisting in the run-up to ‘Liberation Day’ that he planned to bring in ‘billions and billions of dollars’ from his reciprocal tariffs.
Having swiftly paused most of them following wobbles in the bond market, he focused his efforts on China instead. Now, one month later, amid fears of rising inflation and warnings of empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas, Trump has pulled the plug again.