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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • Tariff Markets Open....
    Speaking of damages that Musk is causing to the government. Turely appalling ….
    https://npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5285539/doge-musk-usaid-trump
    Some of those working for Musk don’t have security clearance but they are assess classified files in the Treasury department.
  • Flaming Orange Craziness tariffs
    I haven't been able to access it yet but found this one instead:
    We're at war
    The Dems missed the memo. They don't catch on very quick - or at least, they don't SPEAK UP quite often enough. Always so afraid of calling him out.
    The rest of us are SCREWED. Two years of hell ahead, and that's assuming the Dems gain control of Congress in Nov-2026. But by then it will be way too late to save this country.
    SCREWED.
    On the bright side, at least the markets seem immune...or just oblivious for now?
  • Flaming Orange Craziness tariffs
    Yup. Readable.
    Conclusion: "My single biggest worry about all of this is that the entire operation could be like a freight train that starts picking up more and more speed and becomes harder and harder to stop, so that even if somebody — the courts in six months or GAO in a year — says, “Wait, this is not right, should not have been done,” so much damage will have been done, so much china will have been broken, so many programs undermined that it’s going to be a Humpty Dumpty that can’t be put back together again."
    *********
    This is not news anymore, but terrifying. The Repugnants on The Hill are giving the Orange Disaster and uncle Muskie free rein. They are accomplices in the ongoing coup. As I've said before, the Repugnant Party today is not the Republican Party of yesteryear. Which means the Rule Of Law is just...dead. The checks and balances built into the gov't are nothing more than decorations, now. Any organization cannot function unless participants are operating in good faith. That is no longer the case. This is a revolution from within, a hostile takeover.
    Senator Schatz from Hawaii has stated he will use procedural rules to block State Dept. appointee-nominees from reaching the floor for a vote until USAID is restored. Court cases take time. Investigations take time. Time is what we do not have.
    And think of this: the President is already a criminal felon. What he's doing and directing others to do these days is illegal, too. It is criminal activity. Will he get away with murder AGAIN? Probably, and so I need to vomit. Too many voters are as dumb as rocks, or they just don't care about ethical considerations anymore, if they ever did. This is not the country I used to know.
    MUSKIE:
    image
  • Pricing of a “fund of funds” ETF?
    The problem described doesn't depend on whether the underlying holdings are ETFs or other traded securities. Either way, the question is whether an ETF's bid and ask prices are representative of the aggregate prices of the underlying securities.
    IOW, what you're asking is just a variant of a question already addressed (knowing an ETF's NAV). In math terminology, your problem can be reduced to a previously-solved problem.
    See Boiling Water joke.
    Until a few years ago, all ETFs were required to publish Intraday Indicative Values (IIVs), aka intraday NAVs (iNAV) every 15 seconds that purportedly "indicated" the NAV.
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/etf-eulogy-inav-190000321.html
    In this case, pricing might not always accurately reflect the value of those underlying funds.
    That's true for "vanilla" ETFs as well. This is why Authorized Participants exist. They arbitrage away these discrepancies. They buy ETF shares and redeem them when the shares are underpriced, and do the reverse when shares are overpriced. Consequently ETF prices don't wildly diverge from values.
  • Flaming Orange Craziness tariffs
    I haven't been able to access it yet but found this one instead:
    We're at war
  • Tariff Markets Open....
    NPR's Here and Now did an interview with a WaPo reporter based in Mexico City today. Seems Mexico already has 15,000 troops stationed along the U.S. border.
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    You guys are running a sit com. Ya I just added a couple of zeros to make someone chase their tail. $630m is about $20b today. Ok the US (contractor) lost 22-30,000 workers. I saw when googled “ Estimates of the number of people who died building the Panama Canal range from 22,000 to 30,000. The Panama Canal is considered the deadliest construction project in history.”

    Wait, so you just appear and throw out slop for the heck of it? wtf?
    Today's online world is overflowing with slop and worse than slop. Go away ffs.
    That's what Chahta from Big Bang is good for.
  • January MFO Ratings Posted
    Just posted all ratings and fund flows to MFO Premium site, using Refinitiv data drop from Friday, 31 January 2025, reflecting metrics thru January.
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    You guys are running a sit com. Ya I just added a couple of zeros to make someone chase their tail. $630m is about $20b today. Ok the US (contractor) lost 22-30,000 workers. I saw when googled “ Estimates of the number of people who died building the Panama Canal range from 22,000 to 30,000. The Panama Canal is considered the deadliest construction project in history.”
    Wait, so you just appear and throw out slop for the heck of it? wtf?
    Today's online world is overflowing with slop and worse than slop. Go away ffs.
  • Vanguard lowers fees across mutual funds and etfs
    Most are going down only 1 basis point. Not sure why it's generating this level of media coverage ... it's a non-issue for most people who wouldn't even notice.
    Headline:
    Vanguard drop it's fees 50%
    - that's the kinda hype going from 1.5 basis point to 1 basis point creates... not much in your pocket, but it's a 50% savings!
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    MAGA re-googles, is sure both are 25 bazillion.
    in reality, canal pay per use w/out upkeep, and w/out having to support the entire nation of panama to an american std-of-living (even that of missibama) is a bargain.
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    Despite the monumental effort, about 5,600 workers died from disease and accidents during the US construction phase of the canal. Of these, the great majority were West Indian laborers, particularly those from Barbados. The number of Americans who died was about 350.
    Wickipedia, ref McCullough 1977, pp. 582–585, 610.
    $375,000,000 in 1914 = $11,835,187,500 in 2025. So what?
    @Gary1952 has a lot in common with that army helicopter pilot: "I have the aircraft in sight". Right.
    Trumpers just make up fake "facts" whenever it suits them (which is most of the time).
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    You might want to re-Google or AI your numbers.
    "Records indicate that during the period of US construction, more than 55,000 people were employed and an estimated 5,600 died of injury and disease. The death toll would have been higher without effective protocols to control vectorborne diseases, in effect a second “special wonder of the canal.” LINK
    The French lost the other 20K during their effort to construct the canal prior to going bankrupt.
  • Tariff Markets Open....
    The big Bluff was shot down. He can't really revive this, but his ego might force him to try.
    Is the US border "safer" with 10K Mexican soldiers stationed there? Not confident about that one.
    It's their Guardia Nacional. What could possibly go wrong?
    I can't imagine anyone was impressed by this performance piece. Well, Putin was impressed for a little while at least: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/03/putin-says-europe-will-stand-at-feet-of-master-as-trump-imposes-tariffs.html
    “I assure you: Trump, with his character, with his persistence, he will restore order there [Europe] quite quickly. And all of them, you will see — it will happen quickly, soon — they will all stand at the feet of the master and will wag their tails a little. Everything will fall into place,”
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    The US lost 25,000 people in the construction and it cost $2,000,000,000,000 in today’s dollars to build. And Carter gave it away. Genius move on his part.
    President Trump hardly got his way.
  • Ocean shipping, Panama Canal.
    Free passage for US warships through the Panama Canal.
    I heard this on the radio this morning and the first word that popped into my head was "extortion".
    That's a nice canal you have over there. Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it.
    The quotes sound like a Rubio PR piece.
    Take "high fees charged to US ships". Rubio himself acknowledged: "the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans, because U.S. cargo accounts for nearly three-quarters of canal transits".
    Use the canal more, pay more. That doesn't seem so hard to understand.
    https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/1/sen-cruz-evidence-shows-panama-may-be-in-violation-of-canal-treaty
    Withdrawal from China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
    Panama conceded nonrenewal, not withdrawal, though it will attempt the latter.
    https://nypost.com/2025/02/03/us-news/panama-to-end-relationship-with-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/
    "Free passage" and "optimizing transit priority" sound like they may violate the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal between Panama and the US.
    The Republic of Panama declares the neutrality of the Canal in order that both in time of peace and in time of war it shall remain secure and open to peaceful transit by the vessels of all nations on terms of entire equality, so that there will be no discrimination against any nation, or its citizens or subjects, concerning the conditions or charges of transit, or for any other reason,
    https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/wha/rlnks/11936.htm
  • CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head
    Following are edited excerpts from a current report in The Washington Post:
    The consumer watchdog agency was formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Elon Musk wants to “delete” it.
    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau halted much of its work to investigate and penalize corporate wrongdoing on Monday, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — tapped to lead the watchdog on an acting basis — ordered an agency-wide review to “promote consistency” with the new Trump administration.
    Shortly after assuming the post, Bessent and his aides ordered bureau staff in an email to cease crafting regulations, enforcing rules, conducting probes or providing “public communications of any type,” according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post, which said he had instituted the ban “effective immediately.”
    The missive appeared to herald a stark shift for the CFPB, a powerful agency formed in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive or predatory financial practices. It came on the same day that President Donald Trump named Secretary of State Marco Rubio acting administrator of another agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration moved to shutter as part of a broad and contested effort to slash government spending and regulation.
    The financial watchdog is a longtime target of Republicans’ scorn: Party lawmakers have threatened for years to defund the CFPB or neuter its powers — and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is advising Trump on his reconfiguration of American government, has called on Congress to “delete” the bureau entirely.
    Under President Joe Biden, the CFPB had been active and aggressive: Its leader, Rohit Chopra, issued a wide array of rules to crack down on predatory lending, reduce the burden of medical debt and cut fees that customers pay when they fall behind on their credit card bills or overextend their checking accounts. Chopra also expanded the bureau’s watch over Apple, Google and other tech giants as their digital payment apps grew more popular with consumers.
    Trump similarly moved to restrain the CFPB during his first term. His acting director then — former congressman Mick Mulvaney — at one point requested no new money for the agency and settled its pending enforcement actions, sometimes for as little as $1.
    This time, Republicans have promised to pursue even more significant changes to the CFPB, targeting its leadership structure, investigative powers and funding source; the bureau gets its money from the Federal Reserve. Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) unveiled the latest bill to curtail its funding, describing the CFPB as an “unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic agency.”
  • EU-Mexico-Chile-Mercosur. Trade Agreement Analysis
    Now I'm confused. Are you talking about the modernization of the EU-Mexico agreement (literally the subject of the cited article), the modernization of the EU-Chile agreement, and/or the new EU-Mercosur agreement?
    I ask because you talk of the EU doing business in LAC - Latin America plus the Carribean. The only agreement with CARIFORUM mentioned in the article was penned back in 2008. It's not one of the broader "next-generation" agreements that the article discusses.
    Here's one example of how these new agreements "reflect a shared vision of ... the rule of law". The EU-Mercosur agreement prohibits either side from "not enforcing environmental and labour laws".
    Perhaps if you could likewise quote a sentence or two it would help clarify what it is you are reading into the rule of law as reflected in which agreement(s).
    The verbatim agreement text supporting the above quote:
    In addition, the Parties agree in Article XX [TSD].2(3) of this Agreement that they should not weaken the levels of protection afforded in domestic environmental or labour law with the intention of encouraging trade or investment. The Parties recall that, under Article XX [TSD].2(5) of this Agreement, they agree that they shall not fail, through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction, to effectively enforce their environmental or labour laws, in order to encourage trade or investment. In this regard, the parties acknowledge the importance of the provision of appropriate available means to perform such enforcement. Moreover, pursuant to Article XX [TSD].2(6) of this Agreement the Parties shall not apply environmental and labour laws in a manner that would constitute a disguised restriction on trade or an unjustifiable or arbitrary discrimination.
    https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/09242a36-a438-40fd-a7af-fe32e36cbd0e/library/19d538eb-d33c-4039-8afa-42dfe7cc66b6/details?download=true