German Girls are the Best

The Economist of today:

 In 1980 Israel's gdp per person was about half of Germany’s; now it is 12% higher.

Amazing! The Soviet Jews who were left out with a visa for Israel but choose Germany... lost. Leaving Judaism means surely declassing. I learned that in Argentina. 

In my adolescence, I used to spend whole days reading the latest Economist, missing out on classes, and not studying. 

What did I learn today? That the world is already in a recession cycle, as Ray Dalio's book says. I have bought his book but it is so large that it cannot be read in the bed but has to be rested on a table, like the Tanach, so I just skipped around.  

Mi meshugah?

 Who is Psycho?

I am psycho.

Who is crazy?

I am crazy. I am a crazy golanchik.*

I want to be a fighter.

To fight the terrorists. 

And return home in peace

To the Brigade that is a dream.

Who is a crazy golanchik?

I am a crazy golanchik!

* Golani is an infantry brigade. 

Classic Bank Run

 Credit Suisse has revealed the scale of the bank run that triggered its state-backed rescue in March.

The Swiss banking giant said 61.2bn Swiss francs left the bank in the first three months of the year.

68.6 Billion US dollars. 

Switzerland's Foreign Currency reserves are about 800 - 1000 Billion US$.  The Swiss are very rich. They could have easily saved the bank.  But it was not worth saving. 

Ohne Fleiss

 

No pain no gain. My first Austrian lesson. Wien 1956.

The Potash market is sinking.  Potash had a substantial price decline in recent months. Prices in Brazil dropped from $1,200/ton in April 2022 to just $600/ton in November 2022.

I speculated that with Ukraine and Russia busy in their war, K supply will fall and prices will go up. But the Canadians exploited the situation to win market share and are flooding the market with potash. 

I am losing a lot of money. 

Great Day for UP

I have urgent, easy projects on the table but am unable to sit down and work. It must be some kind of depression, but I have no cause for feeling bad. Just abulia, inertia, whatnot. In other words, a lack of will, drive, or initiative for action, speech, and thought. This term is derived from the Greek word aboulia, meaning “non-will.” 

WINDING UP KEY

WINDING UP! WHERE IS MY KEY?

We had here a week of Pesach work pause and it is mightily difficult for me to re-start work. On Sunday I traveled to Afula for Victory's new store, but I am unable to sit for long and work. How can I wind up to work? I do not need to work but I am afraid of the vacuum if I stop. Work maintains me in life. Or not. God, help me. Maybe too much valium makes me lazy as now I am.

End of the Credit Suisse Chapter

The defunct Swiss Bank not only destroyed records of Jewish deposits during WWII but also helped Nazis to steal Jewish monies. Not only helped them but actively hindered the investigation of its criminal actions. 

A committee of US lawmakers on Tuesday said troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group CSGN.S hampered a multiyear investigation into the servicing of Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts.

Credit Suisse commissioned an investigation into allegations levied by a human rights organization that the bank held potential Nazi-linked accounts and failed to disclose them, even during Holocaust-related probes decades earlier. A Senate committee's recent investigation into the matter found the bank hindered the probe and "inexplicably terminated" an independent reviewer overseeing it.

The "information we've obtained shows the bank established an unnecessarily rigid and narrow scope, and refused to follow new leads uncovered during the course of the review," Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement.

Now we are starting to understand how those Nazis that immigrated LEGALLY to Argentina after the war arrived with such large fortunes and could buy themselves estancias in Patagonia.  With the disappearance of Credit Suisse that chapter of the Holocaust is now closed and justice was not even remotely done.