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T Minus 3 – Peace in the Middle East, China is Shrinking and Space X Eplodes

Posted on the 17 January 2025 by Phil's Stock World @philstockworld
T Minus 3 – Peace in the Middle East, China is Shrinking and Space X EplodesWhat a day! Elon Musk's 7th Starship blew up just after lifting off but that's space biz and Mr. Musk, who is now our unelected leader said "Success is uncertain but Entertainment is guaranteed!" Only a guy with $400Bn can say that when his $200M rocket explodes. He'll be saying the same thing about your retirement account next year...

That's right it's just 3 days before Elon and company take charge of the Government so times, they are a changin' - to an Oligarchy, according to outgoing President Joe Biden but an Oligarchy is where a small group of people have control of a country but that's not the case here as Trump doesn't always do what Putin tells him to...

Minus Peace Middle East, China Shrinking Space Eplodes
What we have here is a KLEPTOCRACY, which is a society or system ruled by people who use their power to steal a country's resources, which includes the labor of the working class and all you wage slaves know EXACTLY what that feels like, right? I know Boaty agrees with me:

A kleptocracy operates through several key mechanisms that are relevant to the current situation:

Kleptocrats typically employ a "divide-and-rule" strategy, exploiting the fragility of social cooperation by providing selective incentives and punishments to different groups[8]. This weakens collective action against their policies while enabling the systematic diversion of public resources for private gain[1].

The modern kleptocratic playbook includes:

## Financial Mechanisms
- Massive diversion of public funds for private benefit
- Adding costs and creating market inefficiencies
- Deterring legitimate foreign direct investment[1]

## Control Methods
- Using wealth to corrupt politicians
- Manipulating public opinion
- Undermining democratic processes[4]
- Repressing dissenting voices[1]

## Economic Impact
- Draining resources from public services
- De-legitimizing government institutions
- Creating market distortions that slow growth[1]
- Hollowing out security institutions[1]

The success of kleptocratic regimes often rests on their ability to:
- Exploit weak institutional oversight
- Create sophisticated networks of enablers
- Use legal teams and lobbyists to protect their interests[11]
- Invest heavily in countries outside their own to hide wealth[11]

As seen in historical examples, kleptocracies tend to arise in countries where democratic institutions lack the strength to hold political leaders accountable to the public[11]. The combination of concentrated economic and political power allows for greater capture of resources, creating what experts call an "unvirtuous cycle"[21].

Wow, not ONE of those things is not true of what's happening in the US, is it? Like Bernie Sanders - this is something I've been warning people about for decades and, like Bernie Sanders - I've unfortunately lived to see it happen anyway...
T Minus 3 – Peace in the Middle East, China is Shrinking and Space X Eplodes

That's from the 2008/9 market crash so even " I told you so!" is getting a bit stale at this point. Anyway, nothing we can do about it now - as Trump said, that was our last election - do you really think these people walk away from power or, hahaha, leave it up to you to decide whether or not they can keep it?

Anyway, so we may as well move on to good news, Benny Netanyahu said they will have a meeting to approve the Cease-Fire deal, hopefully today but, if they can't resolve it by sundown (Shabbos), then maybe Sunday? How great is it that people can get back to normal?

T Minus 3 – Peace in the Middle East, China is Shrinking and Space X Eplodes

Between fires and hurricanes and wars, 2025 should be a great year for Building Materials and Construction Equipment. See, there's always an opportunity somewhere...

China, unfortunately, is missing a lot of opportunities to get pregnant as 2024 marked the 3rd consecutive year of population decline in the World's most populist nation. 9.5M people were born in China last year but 10.9M people died so net -1.4M and the trend is not your friend if you sell baby clothes in China but the coffin industry is projecting a 100% increase over the next 20 years.

T Minus 3 – Peace in the Middle East, China is Shrinking and Space X Eplodes

China's fertility rate-the number of children a woman has in her lifetime-is less than half of the replacement rate of 2.1, meaning that each generation will be less than half the size of the one before it. Chinese couples who delayed marriages and births during the pandemic rushed to give births in the Year of Dragon, said He Yafu, an independent demographer based in Guangdong. But he said underlying factors, such as a shrinking number of women of childbearing age and young people's reluctance to start families, remain unchanged. " This year, births will be lower again," he said.

According to He, the long-term trend is also that deaths will gradually rise each year as the aging of the population speeds up. In 2010, only 13% of the population fell into the 60-and-older age bracket. Now, that age group makes up over one-fifth of the population, or 22% last year, up from 21% in 2023.

In other countries with aging populations, immigration often helps offset low birthrates and keep the population younger. Lower immigration is one reason U.S. deaths are expected to exceed births in 2033, seven years earlier than projected just a year ago and maybe even faster if Trump gets his way. See - we're keeping up with China!

Monday is a holiday but they are still swearing Trump in at noon so we'll see you Tuesday at T PLUS 1 but let's give Musk and Trump a chance to show us how they will make America great (again). Who knows, things may turn out well...

Have a great weekend,

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