A Jerusalem Paradox

Efforts to form a unity government made significant progress in marathon talks over the weekend, but the coalition could be endangered due to the skirmishes over Muslim prayer in Jerusalem that upset Ra'am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas.

Abbas's four votes supporting the coalition from outside are key to establishing a new government. Obtaining a majority of 61 requires Ra'am's votes to join the 57 of Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Labor, Israel Beytenu, Meretz, New Hope, and Yamina, which is down to six votes without rebel MK Amichai Chikli.

The Arab protests in Jerusalem may become the obstacle to the creation of a pro-Palestinian, left-wing government in Israel.  

Google shows only pics of brutal Jewish police persecuting unseen protesters. It is biased and political. The world is against us.

Second Thoughts on INTEL

Coffee makes me sleepy in mid-morning, it weakens the tyranny of my Superego, letting me be assaulted by troublesome doubts about INTEL. The Asians have been outcompeting and destroying, one after another, Western industries. It started with the transistor, invented by Americans in 1947, which the Japanese made synonym with a small battery-operated radio. Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic destroyed Emerson, Raytheon, Westinghouse, Sylvania, Phillips. The American television industry was erased from the face of the Earth and the only TVs on the market are Korean or Japanese. Who remembers Admiral, Sylvania, Zenith?  Sony walkman created a new industry. The Japanese started to make hand-watches, and the old Swiss watchmaking industry suddenly disappeared like the Neanderthals, and Rollex and Doxa which were the non-plus-ultra cannot be found anymore, only as luxury collector's items. The photograph market was invented and dominated by Kodak for a century, and the Polaroid, suddenly was no more and Japanese digital cameras took over. I remember the American auto industry, the enormous Ford and General Motors factories, which are ruins, and their shares. worthless. Toyota, Subaru, etc. utterly destroyed these admired and apparently indestructible champions. After such a pattern of defeats, what are the chances of INTEL?  

I do not want to follow this line of reasoning to its logical end. 

Betting on America

 

There is a desperate fight to the death in the chip (processor) arena. INTEL, the aged Alpha Male, lost its edge and is unable to produce the 7-nanometer processor already sold by its competitors Taiwan Semi and Samsung. America is pouring in billions to catch up, as do the Asians to keep their advantage. Israel is a member of the American team and will benefit from the coming technological revolution. I hold INTEL shares - should I sell as the experts suggest? 

Pic.: the INTEL complex in Ocotillo, Yavapai county in Arizona. The place has zero AfroAmerican population. 

Jewish Poverty

 The poorest people in Israel are a large (500,000 person) group of Haredi (religious) people.  The men study in yeshivot and at age 18 marry and continue studying. Not that they are inactive, because caring for a large family is work and to fulfill the innumerable religious customs up to their tinfoil extremes (see the pic of a Haredi kitchen during Pessach) is work, but they do not hold regular jobs and live off Social Insurance. They are Jews, a people historically linked to commerce and money management, but the Haredim choose to live an intellectual life and material hardship. 

This holy poverty also characterized the halutzim, pioneers, who left Europe to dedicate their lives to manual labor in the Holy Land. Their extremism went to the point that they had no personal property nor even shirts. They lived in communes permanently exposed to cruel criticism for bizboozim (wasting resources) such as putting too much sugar in the tea. 

Jewish mass poverty exists, and in our days it is a choice. Other peoples have fakirs and mendicant monks, but our poor are a mass movement. Myself feel the call to holiness too, but for me it is late. Maybe the next time. 

Belt and Road

 

The Belt and Road initiative has been running for a couple of years so it is possible to form an initial appreciation of what it is about. It builds infrastructure necessary for Chinese exports. It is financed by easy loans, tempting the countries to go into debt. This resembles the British Empire's policy in South America in the 19th Century. The republiquetas were unable to pay even the interest, and it was followed by "gunboat diplomacy" such as British banks taking over the customs of Venezuela. Apparently, it is benevolent, like a usurer giving loans to poor people who most probably will not be able to return the loan.    

The China I like

The video clip shows a sanitary worker cleaning a dam,

a rather dangerous job, in Yun Taishan Nature Park. I recognize his accent as the Henan dialect - so different from the unnatural, upper-class Mandarin spoken by officials. This is the China I know and like.  

 

Caveat Emptor (when dealing with Swiss banks)

Lost my balance and hurt my right hand, so I have spent the day studying the markets. Anglo-Saxon banks are scrupulously honest, but Europeans are highway robbers. African banks are chaotic, Asian banks - I am unsure. The Chinese, in my experience, are dishonest. Credit Suisse, my personal bête noire, is being sued in the Greensill affair, which at last understood.

It is like this: Credit Suisse froze $10 billion of Greensill's funds, causing its insolvency as it found itself unable to repay a $140 million owed to Credit Suisse. Incredibly, Credit Suisse continued to market Greensill funds as a fully insured, low-risk product despite a decision by insurers to discontinue coverage. All that knowing that Greensill was broke (they had caused its bankruptcy, did they?).  Seems to me a clear case of fraud.