Author: DOuG pRATt

Tariff Test Update

There’s been a delay in the shipment of my Thakker turntable belts from Germany.

The original shipment was canceled. The shipment will be booked on a new shipment.

The originally planned transport for the transport container was canceled (e.g., due to insufficient transport capacity). The transport container with the shipment will be assigned to the next available transport.

With the 10% tariff taking effect today, my assumption is it’s now being applied to the shipment, with payment due upon delivery.

Alakabrodax, Wham Wham Wham

Let’s return to the subject of Beatles cartoons. I most recently talked about them in this post, which has one of my best punniest titles.

Beatles for Cel

All of the Beatles cartoons were produced by Al Brodax. As a kid I watched his syndicated King Features Syndicate cartoons. Brodax cleverly embedded his name into the Snuffy Smith cartoon, ‘Jughaid the Magician’.

 
Andrew at Parlogram Auctions has this comprehensive history of the Beatles cartoon series on ABC-TV.

Brodax went on to produce the vastly superior and well-received Yellow Submarine animation feature; which, until yesterday, I had thought was the last of the Beatles Toons. But no, Brodax took one more swing at the Beatles. His never completed Strawberry Fields project has a strong Ralph Bakshi vibe.

I learned about this extremely curious artifact from a member of the Cartoon Research group on Facebook. There’s more information on the Cinema Crazed site.

The Bootleg Files: Strawberry Fields

The Wrong Sort of Correction

The stock market was inflated and overdue for a correction. It isn’t the Fed’s job to tame Wall Street’s irrational exuberance, but markets always react to rate changes. This is why I think the Fed shouldn’t have cut rates last year. (Another reason is I like earning 4.5% on CDs.)

Rather than continuing to apply more braking power to inflation, the Fed’s easing of interest rates coincided with Wall Street’s optimism over Trump’s “business friendly” return to the White House. In a classic “be careful what you wish for” scenario for investment banks, Trump has whacked Wall Street with his irrational exuberance for tariffs.

Now Trump is saying, “This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates.” Uh, no it’s the WORST time. Here’s a bright, young economist who leaves no wiggle room in his analysis of Trump’s tariffs.