51–60 of 509 posts
I wonder if he would go so far as to withhold access to US tech to this end.
> The cable said the Trump administration was pushing for "a more assertive international data policy" and that diplomats should "counter unnecessarily burdensome regulations, such as data localization mandates." For any government in Europe, it should be extremely pressing to untangle itself as quickly as possible from US-based companies as suppliers. But to be frank, even regulations should be unnecessary here. Pri…
They do already, everyone except the ones truly deep into the US ecosystem already have plans or are making plans for how to get out from US infrastructure in 2026.
How can you be so confrontational and still want people to give you business and data? I really don't envy the diplomats' job at the moment.
This administration really, truly lives under the delusion that they hold "all the cards". In every engagement they think it is for them to dictate and everyone else to follow. Any graciousness they show is just kind benevolence. And the "diplomats" of this administration is a rogues gallery of Epstein associates (e.g. pedophile sex-trafficking garbage) and self-dealing criminals. Just a who's-who of garbage. They ar…
Just replace Mexico with America. There must be some Freudian issue going on with Trump here.
How can you be so confrontational and still want people to give you business and data? I really don't envy the diplomats' job at the moment.
US 'diplomats' are campaigns big donors, or primary supports. I've eaten with someone who expected to be named diplomat in Europe because he supported Obama by 2007, but was one-uped by a richer donor post-primary.
To be clear, there are political and career diplomats, and each administration mixes and matches to its taste. (The current one veers strongly towards political appointees. That is to say, folks who raised money.)
This is how most foreign services are run, with maybe the exception of China.
this is hilarious, just last week i heard american tourists complaining that "they" were subisidzing Europe's lazy lifestyle
The rough argument was: pharma companies need big payoffs when they discover a new drug and, due to structural characteristics of the US market, that's where they can get the highest prices.
So pharmas make a large chunk of their profits in the US and then sell drugs more cheaply in e.g. Europe.
Fairly weak and incomplete argument [1], but I've seen this pushed seriously by people in public debates in the US.
[1] - a couple of obvious issues with this argument are: 1. why is it Europe's fault that the US has structural issues that prevent it from negotiating drug proces as a united front? 2. healthcare costs are largely inflated by admin costs in the US. Drugs can be expensive too, sure, but this argument ignores the big cost intrinsic to the insane insurance and billing system prevalent in the US.
How can you be so confrontational and still want people to give you business and data? I really don't envy the diplomats' job at the moment.
This administration really, truly lives under the delusion that they hold "all the cards". In every engagement they think it is for them to dictate and everyone else to follow. Any graciousness they show is just kind benevolence. And the "diplomats" of this administration is a rogues gallery of Epstein associates (e.g. pedophile sex-trafficking garbage) and self-dealing criminals. Just a who's-who of garbage. They ar…
I wonder if he would go so far as to withhold access to US tech to this end.
There is literally no such thing as "US tech". Even for those companies domiciled in the US, it is just the label on a world of contributions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the market does not reflect reality.
The market reflects reality. The new reality is that the people who are invested apparently don't need liquidity, and bad news doesn't really matter.
The rich and ultra rich don't need liquidity, they have our 401k plans for that.
How can you be so confrontational and still want people to give you business and data? I really don't envy the diplomats' job at the moment.
Most 'diplomats' of the new USA are just grifters like Witkoff or Kushner. Real estate people cosplaying diplomats. The US as the world has known it is gone https://apnews.com/article/france-us-ambassador-kushner-far-...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/18/belgium-invest...
And of course Joe Popolo in the Netherlands:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/11/displays-black...
(He later doubled down on the decision to erase any mention of the racial segregation black US soldiers were submitted to while serving in the army during WWII.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I’m hoping tech companies in Europe and Asia become independent enough to no longer be beholden to US interests What tech companies? At the end of the day, it's all about capital and IP. American domiciled VCs and companies can outinvest just about any other competitor, and much of the core IP for vast swathes of critical next-gen technologies (high NA EUV, Foundation Models, Quantum Computing) is in the US, but Am…
>American domiciled VCs and companies can outinvest just about any other competitor, Because every investor in the world put their money in the US. They knew the best companies and people would centralize around that hub. When the US is a rogue, isolated idiocracy -- already true, but the world takes time to adapt to this new reality -- how much of that money do you think will flow to the US?
American public pension funds alone hold $6 Trillion in AUM [0] and American endowment funds hold a little under $1 Trillion in AUM [1], and tend to be the LPs for most VC funds as most institutional investors follow the Yale Investment Model.
[0] - https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2024-ann...