#INVESTMENTS IN CHINA

[donotdestroy]

What’s Trump thinking? People are barely getting by after COVID, and now with these tariffs? This just makes things worse.

[beccataylor25]

It’s the memories and moments we have in our lives that will stay with us forever ♾️

[still-breathing-au-p3r]

It’s Takeba and Yamagishi today. Aki too, of course– but that’s a given at this point. Shinjiro hasn’t done the math or anything, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Aki is actually spending more time in his hospital room than the dorm these days.

Takeba starts off by trying to apologize that she couldn’t visit sooner, but Shinjiro waves her off. It’s not like she’s obligated to visit him. Nobody is, though Aki would probably argue with him about it if he ever tried to say that out loud.

Takeba brushes off getting brushed off, smiling and rolling her eyes with theatrical flair, and starts telling him about a new recipe she’d tried her hand at recently, and how she’d roped Arisato into playing guinea pig.

Yamagishi looks troubled today, for some reason. As Takeba proudly relays Arisato’s verdict on her cooking (raised eyebrows and a nod, and saying ‘yum’ out loud, which coming from him was roughly the equivalent of jumping onto the table and shouting praise at top volume), Shinjiro keeps glancing over at Yamagishi, wondering if she’ll actually speak up. Eventually, Takeba also notices.

She squirms a little in her seat, uncomfortable with suddenly being the center of attention.

Understanding dawns on Takeba’s face. Whatever Yamagishi wanted him to hear, Takeba already had, apparently.

The words and the tone he actually says them in are so mis-matched it’s almost hilarious. There’s no bite at all in his voice, even though usually he finds this kind of waffling deeply annoying. 

The thing is, though, that he just doesn’t have it in him to be annoyed– ever, to any degree– with Yamagishi. This soft-spoken slip of a girl who couldn’t hurt a fly doesn’t deserve that.

She takes a deep breath. Shinjiro wonders if what she has to say really is that intimidating, or if he’s the intimidating one. He knows how he looks to most people. Sometimes he even leans into it. 

But Yamagishi being scared of him… doesn’t feel right. It feels pretty shitty, actually. She’d been skittish in the normal shy-person-dealing-with-a-stranger way when he’d first come back to the dorm, but that had pretty much evaporated within a week. She’d acted perfectly comfortable around him since then.

There’s really only one thing that’s changed that would explain why she was suddenly nervous around him again. Aki said that nobody thought any different about him after learning the whole ugly story, but–

Well. That’s about the last thing Shinjiro expected to hear. All he’s been getting are lectures and apologies since he woke up. Where the hell would any kind of thanks be coming from?

She pauses and rubs at one eye with the edge of her sleeve. Oh god, if she starts crying, he absolutely will not be able to handle it. He wonders vaguely whether the windows in this room can be opened. 

Takeba puts a hand on Yamagishi’s shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze, which seems to work like a charm to calm her down.

How the hell is he supposed to respond to that?

Shinjiro is once more at a loss for words. Over the month he’d spent running with the team again he’d watched Yamagishi become far less meek, but this is still the first time he’s heard her sound downright stern. 

Okay then. He’s been underestimating her. After growing up with Miki, you’d think he really ought to know better.

Yamagishi beams at him and he has to look away. Takeba and Aki are both snickering to his side; Takeba is at least making an effort to be kind of subtle about it, but Aki doesn’t even bother. Shinjiro does his best to ignore them, which doesn’t do a damn thing to deter them. 

Ugh. It makes him actually wish for a fresh delivery of school work from Kirijo, if nothing else so he would have something to pointedly focus on instead.

Still, despite his annoyance, he can’t deny the candle-flame glow of pride he feels for Yamagishi and her growing confidence. Aki’s Senpai-fever really is contagious, apparently.

[dazzelmethat]

Ameebs 10 year redraw 2024 vs 2014.

The character himself is about 18 years old though (middle school). Somehow the name Ameba stuck so I just call him Ame now. Or Ameebs. I have done much research into Chinese names for him, but nothing has stuck. The greek root word amoibē means 'a change,' named for his more unsteady physical form.

[sunnycrisp]

creatures

[losvroomvroom]

unhappy. upset. out in sq2. car unusual and strange. seat broke. don't understand softs. p13. team can't email a video file. and yet.... he still served.

[hitsuyou-fukaketsu]

Is drawing fanart for a fic a bit too much

[playstationvii]

BINANCE X DEARDEARESTBRANDS

[The Proposal]

The document provides an intriguing development between Binance and #DearDearestBrands, with key highlights being:

Binance and TheeForestKingdom Collaboration: Binance's CEO has made significant strides toward a formal alliance with TheeForestKingdom, even exploring a potential marriage proposal to Bambi Prescott, regarded as the Royal Princess and Heir of TheeForestKingdom.

Agreement with Chinese Authorities: Talks with Chinese officials have apparently led to China allowing Binance to establish headquarters within its borders—a historic move, given previous restrictions on crypto companies.

Involvement of Notable Figures: Influential figures like Michael Eisner and Bill Gates are invited to Beijing for discussions. Additionally, DearDearestBrands' rising star 'Chanel' and related idols received a direct invitation from China's government, emphasizing a personal touch in fostering diplomatic and business ties.

Is there a specific angle or further analysis you’d like on this collaboration?

[worstloki]

Loki surveilling the skyline of New York from the top of Stark Tower and clocking that his favorite paired set of buildings are gone. sad

[hotnewsflash]

https://thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-gets-more-bad-china-news…

#bigtroubleinlittlechina as #tariffs hit #tesla. #futures #Economy #BlackMonday #orangemonday #FAFO #Nifty #Sensex #marketcrash #sp500 #teslastock #stockmarket #Tariff #TRUMPUMP #TrumpRecession #TrumpMarketCrash #stock #stocks #friday #cnn #TSLA

[donotdestroy]

LIVE | 'Countries Willing to Kiss My 'Ass' for Talks': Trump Trade Secret BOMBSHELL | CLRCUT

[memenewsdotcom]

Stocks drop on U.S. China trade war fears

[weneedatdcharacterwho]

There's was an idea of a contestant who befriends all of the interns already, but I have another execution

We need a td character who somehow becomes friends with one of the interns. They start spend a lot of time together outside of challenges (possibly because they share some interests and maybe struggles with communication with others) and grow closer (it may work either platonic or romantic, I enjoy both variants but gotta admit that the idea of the romance between a contestant and an intern sounds more interesting to me). The contestant doesn't have any strong connections with any other contestants (they just being the friendly yet lonely one) because of it but they manages to go far because they just do a great job during challenges and often win immunity for their team or themself after the merge, so everyone just thinks they are a good player. But the truth is that the intern was secretly helping the contestant all this time without contestant's awarness of it

Bonus points if the contestant suddenly being eliminated by Chris because of "cheating" without specific explanation so everyone thinks that the contestant was playing dirty all along. And only the intern knows the truth and feels super guilty about it but too afraid to tell this to the contestant because they think it may ruin their relationships

Bonus bonus points if the contestant finds out about this whole thing and it causes a conflict between them and the intern and they go through the arc where they learn to trust each other again (and maybe trying to become more separated and find another friends they may rely on)

(btw, sorry if I send too many suggestions, I just have a lot of thoughts)

.

[batsplat]

id be very interested in any post of yours on the vale/jorge dynamic!!! and as a marc fan first human second i think this would also shed more light on how exactly 2015 became what it did… vale is, as we know, very bad at forgetting and extremely bad at forgiving

(this post is now posted) I do still have a few more open-ended asks in my inbox about this rivalry that I'll get to at some point, but I just wanted to quickly have a crack at this one specifically. you can kindaaaa read between the lines of the post I linked to if you want to know where I stand on this issue, but I don't say it explicitly and I might as well actually do that lol. and my stance on 2015 is that the valentino/jorge rivalry... really does not feature all that heavily. absurdly little, given they are the ones having an actual title fight. they retroactively remember to get mad at each other once all the drama has actually happened - and then suddenly you do get their history worm its way through the cracks. like, actually 2016 is way more interesting for their interpersonal relationship than 2015 is!! but 2015 is... well, it's just not that relevant. by valentino standards, you don't even really get the sense he's motivating himself through the power of spite or anything. he literally just wants his tenth - jorge being his title rival is only relevant insofar as that's his teammate

I don't actually think the maxim of valentino being bad at forgetting and forgiving really holds in this specific relationship. I've banged on about this distinction a few times by now, but to me there really is a substantial and noticeable difference between how valentino approaches the marc/sete rivalries and the way biaggi + casey/jorge get treated. the former camp involves rivals valentino was friends with, blokes he was genuinely fond of on an interpersonal level before they really butted heads competitively - and as a result there's a relationship to burn down. as a result, valentino is hurt by what happens. that's the basic precondition valentino needs not to forgive and forget: he needs to feel like a friendship has been betrayed. with jorge, there's none of that! they never had anything remotely like a close relationship with each other; if anything it's a fair bit colder than the casey dynamic is pre-2007. which means there's really nothing to forgive and forget! valentino gets over the entire 2008-10 dramatics comically quickly... like there's still a bit of needle in 2011 but once he realises there's no real competitive justification, he just kinda goes *shrug* eh, whatever. he's still bickering with casey in 2012, but those two did seemingly get a weird kick out of their squabbling and valentino also dropped that completely around mid-2013 (casey ofc did Not). like these people said some nasty shit about each other... but with both jorge and casey, valentino is extremely willing to drop it when he doesn't really think there's a point any more. as a result, valentino and jorge get on better in valentino's ducati years! it'd really only been a brief period where they're properly at war - but that period is so memorable it's how that teammate relationship gets remembered these days

basically what I said in the jorge/valentino post:

and this maybe deserves a more in-depth post... but of course it's worth pointing out that in their second teammate stint, they once again take their sweet time getting to the actual drama. 2013 they're being perfectly cooperative and honda's cute little internal war is hogging all the headlines, 2014 is basically fine with a bit of corporate espionage for flavour - hell, even 2015 is okay until, like, the very end. they're asked about their relationship every single week that year, to the point where valentino starts making gags about how him and jorge have been keeping relationship diaries and will release them at the end of the year. (drop the diaries, kings.) there's also a very sweet 'ooh you've learned so much from valentino' jorge moment that very much thematically follows on from the 2008-10 post:

Lorenzo explained an incident where, ahead of the season-finale race in Valencia, he approached a journalist to request a specific question was asked to irritate Rossi. "At the airport I told her that at the press conference she had to ask me if Valentino deserved the title,” Lorenzo said.  “For me it would not have been deserved. I wanted to put pressure on him to feel inferior.  “I also created that rivalry through the press."

which... good on you, jorge, but. what. and also... why

point is, even in their actual title fight in 2015, a bunch of different factors conspire to ensure that valentino is focused more on marc than he is on jorge. one big, big reason is that valentino + jorge basically never actually cross paths on track that whole year for more than like, a minute, which is one of the things that made that season so funky. it's maybe a little unsatisfying to go 'that long post I wrote isn't actually super relevant as backstory' and it doesn't not matter, but in a way the really interesting bit is... you'd kinda think it'd matter MORE. their history should be more relevant than it is to this story!! it's weird that it played such a small role! and, again, it does come back into the picture in 2016... they were proper mad with each other then! I reckon they did get to the point where they even managed to hurt each other, where that was something reciprocal! which is fun and compelling, but even there they do manage to mostly Get Over It at some point that very same year. in the end... despite all this history, despite this intense three year stint as teammates the first time round - somehow we ended up with another title fight between the pair of them with a super controversial finish but that interpersonal relationship is very nearly irrelevant. quirky innit

[eaglesnick]

“The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have” – Leonard Nimoy

Of the hundreds of executive orders signed in recent days by President Trump, the establishment of the first-ever US sovereign wealth fund (SWF) caught my attention.

A sovereign wealth fund is a:

“state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as private equity funds or hedge funds. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally."  (Wikipedia 05/02/25)

These investments pay dividends to the governments of the countries that own the shares, who in turn pass this on to their citizens.

We are told that economic growth is the core concern of the Labour Government and to that end they have fulfilled their manifesto promise to establish a National Wealth Fund (NWF) to help boost the economy.  The terms NWF and SWF are often used interchangeably but this is a mistake. They are not the same thing.

Many countries have a SWF. China has the biggest, with a massive $2750bn investment portfolio. Following closely behind is the UEA with $2304bn. Norway, the largest European SWF holder has $1555bn in assets, while Australia has a $257bn SWF. As of 2024, 90 countries worldwide had a SWF of some sort.

The Chinese SWF holds dividend paying shares in a variety of international companies including, the Bank of America, Deutch Bank and Morgan Stanley. It has a 10% share in Heathrow airport, owns 9% of Thames Water, valued at £1.3bn, a 49% share in Neptune Energy, a UK business worth £1.3bn, and a 90% stake in another UK company, Logicor, worth £9.7bn

The Norwegian SWF also holds shares in a number of UK Corporations including a “significant” holding of BP shares as well as shares in AstraZenica, HSBC and GlaxoSmithKline.

This week we have witnessed a massive row between the Labour Government and those who want to see the Rosebank oil and gas field opened up for further development. Those on the right have argued it is essential for the security of Britain’s oil and gas reserves and for the economy that Rosebank be exploited to the full – the Trumpian  "drill baby drill” approach. Utter nonsense!

“Rosebank is 80% owned by oil and gas giant Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government… The last 20% is owned by Israeli firm Ithaca Energy.” (stopcambo.org.uk: 26/02/24)

The Rosebank oil and gas field may provide jobs for UK workers but it also provides jobs for Norwegians and workers from other countries. What Rosebank oil and gas extraction does not do is provide UK energy security, as the Norwegians sell it on the international market. Neither does it provide a revenue stream for the UK government. In short,  Rosebank oil and gas are sold to the highest bidder to maximise profits for Equinor who then pay dividends to the Norwegian Government.

Putting aside the fact that the development of Rosebank will not produce energy security or an income for Britain other than in the form of jobs and licence fees, why on earth do the British not own shares in British oil and gas fields?

While foreign states from across the world have been investing in overseas companies as well as their own home grown businesses, the UK and America have been foolishly wedded to the neo-liberal economic doctrines of Reagan and Thatcher who believed free-markets and privatisation were the answer to all economic woes not State investment. How wrong they turned out to be.

When Reeves announced the creation of the UK National Wealth Fund Sky News said:

“Such funds aim for a financial return on the money they put in for future generations to fuel further state spending.”  (09/07/24)

But Sky, and many other commentators since, were confusing NWF with SWF. The two are not the same.

SWF are set up to make money for the country in the form of share ownership and dividends. A NWF is more limited in scope, usually set up to support  specific national objectives such as infra structure development. NWF do not necessarily expect a financial return for investing taxpayer’s money. A SWF does.

It is time to demand that UK governments receive a return for investing taxpayer’s money. If Government gives money to corporations for development is it really too much to ask for something in return? Perhaps shares to the value of what was invested? 

According to RIFT, for financial year 2023/24 14.4% of UK tax revenue went to business and industry in the form of grants, subsidies, development funds and so forth. . The taxpayer gets no direct finical return for this investment. Corporation tax, the amount paid by businesses and industry, only made up 4.6% of total tax revenue collected so business and industry are net gainers when it comes to taxation: they receive more in free government funding than they pay in corporation tax.

This is completely unacceptable. While the rest of the world is busy buying up British businesses via their SWF we the British taxpayer are quite literally paying them to do so.

These figures comparing the UK’s NWF returns to those of the Norwegian SWF tell it all.

“The Company (UK NWF) returned a loss of £82.2 million before taxation in the year.”  (National Wealth Fund Limited (Formerly known as UK Infrastructure Bank Limited) Annual Report and Accounts 2023–2024 For the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024)

By contrast:

“Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Hits Record $222B Profit In 2024 Driven By Equity Investments.”  (Forbes: 29/01/25)

If British governments are really interested in raising the living standards of ordinary working people and not just the bank balances of the already rich, then they should start investing UK taxpayer’s money rather than simply giving it away.  We live in a capitalist society so our  government should start to act like capitalists and demand a return for our investments..