In all the time that I have been a shareholder in BHP (which is more than twenty-five years), I have never seen a one-day drop of 9.49% which is what happened to BHP's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the New York Stock Exchange last Friday. Since we follow slavishly the American market, Monday should also see a bloodbath on the Australian stock exchanges.
Which is why Tump called last Thursday "Liberation Day": his mad policies liberate us from our attachment to financial security and a comfortable lifestyle. Sitting in a full lotus position on the Oval Office floor, he noted that to base one’s contentment on access to affordable food, cars, electronics, shoes, clothing, furniture, or various other imports was to make one’s existence as fickle as the stock market itself. "My fellow Americans, remember that attachment to worldly things stands at the very foundation of the illusions that lead us to experience deep anguish", said the commander-in-chief, as he calmly reminded the nation on Thursday that desire was the root of all suffering.
If you failed to spot America being "looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far" or it being cruelly denied a "turn to prosper", then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the president of the United States. It's hard to know which is more unsettling: that the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy. Or the fact that on April 2nd, spurred on by his delusions, Donald Trump announced the biggest break in America's trade policy in over a century — and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Or maybe it wasn't an error at all but a cynical, calculated move to make the poor even poorer and the rich even richer.
Although, so far, it hasn't worked for Elon Musk who's trying to make up for his enormous TESLA losses by having released his own record album:
Well, the root of all suffering will no longer bother good ol' Bill whom we will see off at the Batemans Bay Baptist Church on Monday morning at 11 o'clock, thus deftly averting our eyes from what could be another devasting blow to our retirement savings. 9/11 couldn't do it; Lehman Brothers couldn't do it; COVID couldn't do it; only Trump could do it!
