US right now is run by someone whose explicit promises, if actually implemented, have an obvious immedidiate 13-14% reduction in GDP — literally, never mind side effects, I'm not counting any businesses losing confidence in the idea that America is a place to invest, this is just direct impact.

DOGE + deportation by themselves do most of that percentage. The tariffs are a rounding error in comparison, but still bad on the kind of scale that gets normal politicians kicked out.

And yet, the markets are up.

The whole thing is like bitcoin. There’s too many people that benefit from maintaining the collective illusion.

I think if they could find a way to make their software good, instead of bad, like it increasingly is, that would be a good use of that money.