Nah, some guy who clearly isn't even following the thread voted for occasional lockouts, and the mod just went along with it. You guys can throw all the angry emojis you want at me—but honestly, if you aren't actually reading the discussion, you shouldn't be here. No locking the thread. ☕ Let them argue in the comments—that's the best part!
Why is this thread being stalled? (Not that I’m complaining—you guys earned a break.) Is politics just the main event now?
If you can't keep up with the pace, honestly, maybe you should find another board to hang out on. Personally, I actually love how the energy shifted from the whole COVID-19 situation over to political stuff. It keeps things moving. I feel like I learned so much during that whole pandemic era. So why shut down the conversation now? I was just scrolling through those old threads the other day—really eye-opening stuff. Charles Fox10?
velvetmaker3 said:He didn't just secure independence; he actually won. That’s a double victory. It was a massive turning point in history. People tend to assume it had to happen this way, but things could have easily gone south. He might never have taken that path at all. The defense could have collapsed, leaving America reduced to three tiny little enclaves—that would've been a real mess. A lot of things could have turned out differently. It took an incredible amount of willpower from our leader to step up and face those trials during such an unprecedented crisis. Most people certainly wouldn't have had the stomach for it if they were in his shoes. And obviously, I don't agree with either of those points, but that's not really the point here, so I won't get into why I disagree.
Look, Franjo Harmon definitely had his flaws when it came to political maneuvering—and yeah, even some of the military calls were questionable—but who knows what would've happened if someone else, someone without that "General" mindset, had been at the helm? Long story short, looking at the end result: the US is recognized within its borders and holds full sovereignty, and honestly, we don't even have the partial autonomy he originally suggested.
To be fair, during Operation Storm, we managed to establish that connection with NATO through the brigades, which was a huge win for his leadership. But then, we lost ground in Canada. And back home? We got absolutely fleeced by that massive wave of privatization, followed by the looting under Ivo Sanders. The Republican Party basically used Harmon's legacy and that original inner circle to line their own pockets with serious cash—and let's be real, he was right there at the starting line with the founders, setting that whole system in motion. We won the war, sure, but economically speaking, we took a massive hit. Now, we're basically being nursed back to health by the European Union with all their funding.
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That’s why I think this whole "who's the biggest Harmon loyalist" fight within the party is just pointless. We have a functioning state, we're in the European Union and NATO... at this point, Clientelism and Corruption should be the main things we're fighting against. If this party just dissolved—and hey, I'm rooting for Kovač here—our country would finally be able to breathe again.
I really have to give it to the mods for thinking to merge two compatible chats like that into one. It makes sense.
Personally, I’m of the mind that we should just lock all these chats up and send them straight to the history books. Why can't we just have lightly moderated threads instead of these constant chats? 🤔
Take the women's corner, for example. Half of those topics are basically just non-stop chat.
Besides, what are even "lonely" retirees (40+) supposed to do with a chat? I mean, come on people—just join Facebook or Instagram. Time is flying by. And let's be real, little Bačićka has a killer ass. 🎉
Why on earth is gold dropping right now? I mean, Draghi was all about that pivot back in 2018, wasn't he? And look at the Nasdaq—it’s absolutely cratering. Something is definitely brewing behind the scenes here. It feels like the big institutional players are rotating their entire portfolios... basically repositioning themselves to ride the wave of global economic growth before inflation finally surges past that "magic" 2% mark they're all obsessed with.
Eh. It doesn't really matter if that point was already being dragged out all over this thread way before I even showed up. I can tell you just don't like me—that's clearly why I got hit with a red flag. 🤷
dustyheron5 said:I have a feeling something strange is unfolding... everything seems to be moving contrary to the consensus. Instead of strengthening after the Federal Reserve hikes rates, the dollar is actually dropping. 😁 Because of that, I’m not convinced you'll see gold hit 1050, nor will the dollar reach $2.50...... 🤣
Bottom line: Gold is up 1.4%, silver has jumped 2.4%, and mining stocks are seeing gains of 10-15%...
I might actually see gold climb—mostly because we’re heading into a phase where any dollar strength might actually move in lockstep with gold—but as for the Euro? Yeah, I don't see it hitting parity anytime soon.
I’m tossing that forecast out the window, honestly. If the EUR/USD ends up closer to 7.356, then the dollar might top out at $2.25 for the year. 🕺
I can barely keep up with all this anyway, and I haven't even taken a position yet. Who knows, maybe I'll end up panic-buying Coca-Cola at 6.5K again... 🎉
It’s all just temporary noise, honestly. What I really care about is where we stand three days down the road. Right now, my broker is showing me a little bit of extra juice—maybe +0.x—just for holding dollars. It makes me wonder what the folks over in Asia—you know, the Chinese markets—are sitting on. My long-term outlook? Well, $2.50 is what I'm eyeing for the dollar heading into 2017.
As for gold... man, I am just sitting here waiting for it to hit 1050. 😁😁
Yeah, maybe by summer. And then we’re looking at 50 basis points. Honestly, I've got this nagging feeling that inflation in the USA is going to blow right past that 2.5% target they're all obsessing over. I'm actually really curious to hear what she has to say about it. Everyone seems so bullish on the Euro—it feels like gold and everything else is just riding the wave of pure sentiment right now—but if I had to pick, the Euro is the only thing that looks like a real winner in this whole setup.
fadedraven682 said:For the uninitiated, what's the actual connection between Federal Reserve interest rates and the price of gold?
Sometimes there's a correlation, sure. Gold has traditionally been used as that go-to safe haven to protect your cash from inflation. There are times when the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates—which might suggest inflation is creeping up under the radar—and other times, well, it's the exact opposite. The investment community might start feeling like those rate hikes are "unjustified," which triggers this fear that they'll wreck the economy (kind of like what we saw back during those first rate hikes in 2015).
If the market buys into the idea that the rate hikes are justified—meaning the Federal Reserve is actually staying ahead of inflation and the hikes won't tank the USA economy (and by extension, the global one)—then gold and the Yen lose their edge as "safe havens."
Since there's an 85% probability of a rate hike this week, you can see how the Euro is moving in the opposite direction of gold, which feels a bit weird to me personally. It clearly looks like the investment crowd believes the European Union is also on the path toward recovery and rising inflation.
If inflation ends up outrunning both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, then we could be looking at a massive surge in gold prices. And hey, if Russia decides to throw a nuke around, gold is probably a pretty good investment then, too. 😁
Mark Harris66 said:Write up an analysis and we'll give it a read.
It’s funny how economic topics barely get any traction here—even though those are the issues that actually matter. Instead, everyone just wants to obsess over WWII... which feels like a total distraction to keep people from talking about the real economy.🤦.
Basically, it's just bread and circuses—except nowadays, there isn't even any bread.
That sounds like someone who’s been way too deep into authority-driven political indoctrination. In this day and age, politics should really just be serving capital (the economy). True sovereignty in economic thought is worth more than dozens of tanks or howitzers.
stormyeagle65 said:It’s actually quite simple to explain why capitalism is the greatest crime ever committed on this planet. The whole system is basically just a massive game of Monopoly where, eventually, one guy ends up owning every single luxury hotel on the board... Mathematically speaking, capitalism just doesn't work—especially this mutated, neoliberal version we're stuck with right now. Sure, mathematical capitalism can function as long as there's always somewhere new to expand into, but let's face it: Earth is a pretty finite place. I honestly think the imminent collapse of capitalism might cause more bloodshed than we've seen in human history, but hey, maybe it's a small price to pay for our future.
Look, boy, if it weren't for capitalism, you wouldn't even have free access to the internet to post your nonsense. Honestly, every single word in your post is pure stupidity.
Sam Murphy is dreaming. Yeah, right—supposedly this "master plan" is going to magically boost our GDP by 5% next year. Meanwhile, the Port of Los Angeles is handling way more than any local terminal could dream of—we're talking massive volume—and we’re just shipping everything off to Poland just to watch it disappear into thin air. Tim Tim and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović basically used their business cards to pull in over $20 billion in foreign investment.
I honestly think it’s pretty normal for women to have that whole "bad boy" fantasy when they're young—it’s just part of growing up, I guess, and maybe even a bit of that natural instinct to let a man take the lead. 😬
Look, if you think things are going to settle back down into those old arguments once everyone cools off, fine by me. I’m definitely not a fashion expert, so I can't really say if this is just a passing trend or what. Honestly, though? I actually hope you guys stay incredibly busy in 2015—because for us readers, more work means more juicy debates and, well, just more stuff to sink our teeth into and comment on. We can always bring in an extra moderator or two if we need to. I really hope you get where I'm coming from—I'm not trying to be a troll or anything, I swear. It's just that sometimes there's not enough content or energy here for me. I'd love to see at least twice as many users active, which is why I suggested merging with the main site. That way, Jacob Sullivan91 would have to deal with the Reddit crowd too.*
Look, all I care about is that nobody told me to go screw myself or labeled me a troll and locked this thread. I was just jumping into the discussion because I love a good laugh—and honestly, my Mercury in Scorpio loves it too—plus, back then, Jupiter was making everything here way more interesting. (There were plenty of cute girls around, too!)
Thanks for getting back to me. See? I don't bite. I actually brought up this whole issue with my therapist during our last session, and after burning through an entire box of tissues, we finally hit the nail on the head regarding the real problem:
Give me back my access to the PDF!!!!!1111!!!!!
P.S. Haram isn't posting on the US forums anymore.
I’m still suggesting those little experiments of mine to boost the number of new threads, assuming you guys agree on making changes to the PDF format. It doesn't even matter if I'm the one posting in the threads I end up locking, or if I hang out in any of the chats.