I don’t think it truly is a grift - managing the stock market and the price of oil diminishes the political pressure building domestically. Of course, it does create insider knowledge in an environment with neither morals nor enforcement.
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Himself , his family and friends taking the benefit of that makes it a classic grift
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The circle is likely much broader than that. But with Trump, there is actually a need to distinguish between the gestures done for political reasons that then create grift (like this) and the pure grift plays like the watches or the rebadged smart phones.
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I think the key thing is, someone knew and they acted on it. They also had a big account to play with.
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Corrected for legal context
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I chuckled a bit
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I just filled up and noticed it was $4 a gallon here. It’s still a fraction of what I was used to paying all my life in the UK before moving here. I would much rather see higher petrol prices here not least to curb excessive consumption, contend for a better environment, and to do something useful with the tax revenue.
Meanwhile, I also just paid my monthly health insurance premium, $2,245!
One of those costs is supposed to have me foaming at the mouth, and the other is supposed to be met with a tacit shrug while everyone in and around the health care industry enriches themselves.
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I thought it’s annual, and thought it’s still rather steep. Then I saw ‘monthly’ 
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Just did a quick conversation and that is €0.92 per litre.
I’m currently paying €2.06…
Incidentally, it’s 79p equivalent in Sterling.
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I hate American petrol prices so much. No argument can sway me, they are all fairly shit anyway (some explanation of why the US cannot have public transport, which is bogus, it is all about political will and how you build cities, everyone else makes an effort to get public transport to work).
I’ll tell you guys something. 2 days ago petrol cost 24 (around 2 dollars and 40 cents, give or take, dollar is lower now than usual though) Nok per litre on Sri Lanka, only 1 Nok lower than in Norway on that day. Do any of you have any idea how absurdly expensive that is for Sri Lankans ? They have no where near the same wallet as Europeans or Americans. They suffer, not Americans.
Would I hate it if poor Americans had petrol heavily subsidised ? Of course not, I am not a bastard, but average income Americans should pay almost tripple of what they do now. There is no excuse for this, as it is completely and utterly unsustainable in terms of Co2 (which used to be one of my main worries before Russia invaded, but these days Climate Change is relatively unsolvable before the Russo-Ukrainian war ends in any case, as focus is logically diverted to rearmament and increased energy needs instead ). Simply unethical pricing on petrol in the US and it has been like this for way too many decades (hardly creating any incentives for change).
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Anyway, he is right.
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That is staggering - my supplemental is $400/month to cover 100% of prescription drugs and dental (family coverage), and I don’t actually pay that (employer benefit).
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Same as was reported 2 days ago, but slightly softer. Of course still unachievable.
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Lol
serious thread this, but every thread with a lot of Trump creates a lot of necessary gallow’s humour.
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The actual story is even worse. The price I said above is just the monthly premium, sans Obamacare subsidies. In addition I have a maximum out of pocket expense of $16,800 per annum, which I fully expect to meet. My son has type 1 diabetes. Last year we paid about $50 a month for his supplies, on top of our premiums. This year it is $1,000 per month between Omnipods and Dexcoms. It’s a complete joke. Normal family of four, and I expect health care will cost us around $40k this year.
I don’t want to hijack the thread though, so apologies to the community for that.
Magnus made a wonderful point about the price of petrol in other parts of the world where incomes are smaller. Lots of people are suffering in light of this stupid attack on Iran.
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It has a place in the politics thread for sure. It’s a disgrace, especially for levels of care which may vary depending on where you are and what doctors you get.
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Trump has unleashed Jason Bourne?
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The famous butterfly effects.
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