Weighing Assets

This is not a financial advice but let me share my experience with different investment assets…

Rental property: Most of my income comes from various living spaces. Two long term rentals, and a short term airBNB. The two long term rentals are in a metropolitan area, where many come to study and work, whereas short term airBNB is in a rural area. Property is a good investment but all depends on the location and type.

The government is very concerned about housing. And this can be good and bad. On one hand, you are viewed as an evil exploitative landlord, and the government will punish you with taxes and rent controls, but the government also supports tenants that struggle to pay the rent. This means that you will get money even in the darkest times like the Covid lockdown.

The Covid lockdowns have put a lot of people on home office, and many companies realized this is more profitable than maintaining an office in the downtown. Also home office workers take fewer sick days. They don’t care about that sneeze or cough, and will do some work. Naturally office space is struggling, commercial real estate is not experiencing its best days with all the online sales.

Real estate’s profitability is dependent on market forces. My airBNB is very seasonal, summer months bring the most revenue and winter months are rather poor. People come here for cycling and sightseeing. I opened the thing after Covid, Covid would have been shit. Governments are not keen on these short term rentals, I have to have a business licence and pay the municipality. Big cities might have even more regulations. But you can collect many times more money than from long term rentals.

I have mostly experience with residential. There are also things like agricultural land. Not all land is created equal, and the yields might vary. Real estate is a pretty stable form of income but it is prone to third party risk and cannot be moved to another jurisdiction. Population collapse, the die off of boomers, AI driven construction could cheapen properties, and this makes it an unstable storer of value. Inheritance tax is another thing that makes it impossible to build wealth over generations with property. Finally, selling a property might take months, it is highly illiquid.

Stocks: I was trying many jobs and for a time I was a financial advisor, that is a haughty title for a financial instrument peddler. I did not succeed but at least I learned about index funds, and later I learned on my own about ETFs, and I invest in both. I don’t know where this will take me. I want to have several millions of CZK worth of stocks. Stocks are very dependent on markets, they are prone to booms and busts. So when times are good, your portfolio grows, and when they suck, it falls.

Bonds: I keep very little money in bonds. In fact I have this index fund linked to this financial instrument that “invests spare change”. The fund is formed of mostly CZK denominated bonds and the yield is 6-8%. People consider government bonds to be a safe investment, after all the government prints the money. But safe does not mean profitable, the riskier the shit the greater the dividend usually. The dodgier the government, the higher the interest rate.

BTC: Around 2019, I watched this Czech YouTuber that explained Bitcoin. And I invested £100 into it. I am a messy person and lost my hardware wallet. But few years later I found it, and my investment of £100 was now £500. I decided this year to invest regularly into BTC. BTC has a fixed supply, and seems like a good storer of value. Some people say it is going to the moon. Some are afraid that it is prone to hacking with the help of AI. I don’t have the knowledge to judge any of these claims. I put money that I do not immediately need into it and let the fate work its way.

I am a BTC maximalist, all other cryptocurrencies are shit coins, so if you want to invest in whatever, only BTC. BTC does not have a known founder, nobody has ever seen Satoshi Nakamoto; everybody has seen Vitalik Buterin. The BTC protocol is fixed, nobody can temper with it. The supply is fixed, unlike with ETH or whatever other cryptocurrency. Besides, there is no need for another cryptocurrency.

Another thing is liquidity. This is the most liquid asset out there in my opinion. It is traded all the time. Stocks depend on the exchanges they are traded at, gold also needs to be sold to buyers in person. You can cash in your BTC in an instant. Also BTC can be used as payment method, and it can be used as collateral for fiat loans. There are also credit cards that facilitate payments using BTC, and other cryptocurrencies.

Gold: In my opinion gold is the only precious metal worth investing into. Gold is scarce, and it does not rust. Silver depreciates under the elements, and is much more abundant. Unlike silver, the government does not tax gold purchases here in Czechia. Gold has an inflation rate of 2% annually (in 1941 it was 4%, wonder why). And I am fearing that at one point, somebody might find an asteroid full of gold and knock the price down. Maybe at that point I would buy some gold bars. But I missed my chance and now gold is at all time high.

Because gold is tangible some think it is better than BTC. But its tangibility is a liability. My house got broken into once, and while I have a safe box downstairs deep in the basement to store things like that, I am still not very satisfied. The liquidity of gold is dependent on a service of gold vendors that would send a van and pick up your bars, otherwise you have to drive yourself to a vendor or exchange. If you are an institution, with facilities to store your treasure, go ahead but I am a small time retail investor. You can also keep your gold with a third party custodian, much like I do with stocks. Again, this is about a service, and what suits you. But they take a commission.

Ultimately, I invest in whatever I imagine is good at the moment, and I invest whatever money I imagine I can invest. I walk through this life and create different streams of income because my ass is Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in the second. And my opinion on them shifts all the time as my knowledge increases…

Hybrid Biodiesel Cars

We cannot have nice things…

I drove a Toyota hybrid around Jordan and it was a great experience. It was really fuel efficient. And an idea has occurred to me. We consume a lot of vegetable oil and seed oil, and that shit makes the food crispier and tastier but it is not very good for you. Fast food restaurants generate a lot of frying oil sludge, which too can be made into fuel.

The oils could be further refined into cleaner and more efficient combustibles, cars could be fitted with filters, and this way you can reduce pollutants. You could also reduce traffic in cities, I have nothing against this idea. Humans need to walk.

Why do governments aggressively push EVs? EVs suck ass. This is a proof that our politicians know jack shit about how stuff works. They represent lobbyists. They claim they wanna control the weather, stop global warming. Now, if they wanna reduce dependence on oil, there might be more efficient ways.

UPD:

Mercedes is the only car manufacturer of plug-in hybrids with diesel engines.

Hail Destroyed Solar Farm in Texas

Context

“My concern is the hail damage that came through and busted these panels – we now have some highly toxic chemicals that could be potentially leaking into our water tables,” Needville resident Nick Kaminski told Fox affiliate KRIV-TV.

To be honest, such a solar array in fields is a crime. I don’t know that the suitability of the land for agriculture is but at least it could be habitat for wildlife. A meadow for butterflies, a ground for rodents, a hunting ground for canines, and felines, and birds of prey. Big ass beasts can eat grass and shit on the bugs.

You know, solar panels could be built on roofs in the cities. If there was a good scheme where I could sell the electricity generated on my roof into the grid. A scheme in which I would watch money rolling into my account. I would get those panels, and I would even get batteries to supply the grid at night. But alas there is no such shit in Czechia.

Installing solar panels makes no fucking sense in this part of the world. We get no sunlight and the days in winter are short. Only nuclear reactors are the answer if you don’t want to burn coal. I don’t see anything wrong with burning coal if the process is controlled. The powers that be want us to stop burning wood. If they really plan to do it, they would have to enforce it, and I am telling you, they will not come out of here alive. We will burn them in the stove with the wood. 🪵

Food, Energy, Money

Somebody posted this quote on Facebook…

Maybe that’s why the EU tries to regulate agriculture, and energy, tries to control the money with a single currency. Food was the main concern for governments in the ancient world. Just read plaques in cuneiform to get the idea.

Energy was for the most history slave labor and horse power, only the Industrial Revolution introduced new forms of energy such as hydrocarbons and electricity. Bitcoin is based on energy. Production requires energy. Modern society requires energy. Light go out, civilization goes out.

Money is the medium of exchange, pricing and money supply are important for the exchange of goods. BRICS wants its own exchanges, its own financial system. The Russians and Chinese are both on it.

Somehow countries (not all countries) became conscious of these important components of civilization. Russia for instance became a net exporter of food in 2016. The West is finally coming around the fact they need to build nuclear, ☢️ renewables are not going to cut it in the brave new world of AI and electric everything.

But one only wonders what took them this long?

Why Work?

This argument is an expanded “No pussy, no work”…

Today you work only to put food on your table. Note that the food gets ever more expensive and your wages ain’t rising with the inflation. If you are working to pay rent and eat slop, this is a step better from being a slave.

You need college but you get high school level money…

The conclusion my friends is, if you can avoid going to work, don’t go to work. Also, consider working to avoid working later. I know it may sound easier said than done, and by far not everyone could do it but work sucks, employers suck. Ultimately, even the coolest job in the area will suck in many ways.

I am actually not planning to return to full time work when my contract ends next year. Besides, the state taxes your asses to oblivion. You have income tax, value added tax, capital gains tax, property tax, council tax, road tax. In some places you have mandated insurance payments such as car insurance, medical insurance, social security payments, and tv license. And I shouldn’t forget inheritance taxes. Taxes kill your incentive to build wealth and family.

Chinese EV and Renewables Success is our European Failure

Companies in the EU may cry all they want about unfair Chinese competition but they have only themselves and their political leadership to blame…

China did not develop EVs and solar panels to flood the EU with them. China fears being deprived of oil. In a potential conflict, China could be cut off from maritime supplies. China also suffers from extreme pollution in cities. These realities make the development of EVs and renewables a matter of national security. This is why they heavily subsidize this sector.

The EU does not have the heavy industry and the pollution problems, somehow the EU also does not fear being cut off from oil. Norway, UK, the US are deemed to be reliable suppliers. While, the EU does project the banning of the combustion engine, they did not bother with making EVs more affordable. This is where the Chinese come in. Also, the EU wants to boost renewable energy but the solar panels again don’t come cheap, this is where Chinese made panels come in.

China did this out of necessity and the fact their production is an added bonus. I actually wonder about Russian made airplanes. The Russians need domestic production of airplanes because the West wants to blackmail Russia by withholding this technology. Given Boeing’s problems, Russians could in the future win some foreign markets with their production.

Look People, Cyberpunk is Here

And it sucks…

If anything, Elon Musk is a master of PR. He is a master of Hype. But not all his illusions turn out to be a success. Remember Hyperloop? I am personally not against technology, quite the opposite but I am a technology sceptic. Dependence on technology keeps people vulnerable and enslaved. Also, seeing technology as a panacea to world’s problems is wrong…

Self-driving cars were all the hype for many years now and nobody has yet come up with a working and safe, commercially viable vehicle.

But if anyone runs a fleet of these robo-taxis, especially in an urban area with a high density of wealthy individuals, he could be making a killing. No need to pay drivers. If this makes it possible to replace the car entirely, this creates extra money in people’s pockets. Cars are already expensive, in the UK having a car and paying for road tax, congestion charges, and insurance can cost several thousand pound per year.

Come to think of it, a humanoid robot is such a cringe technology. What tasks would it be able to perform? Besides, the joy of living is doing many of these tasks yourself. So on one hand, I would not mind a robot that would clean my AirBNB, so I can dedicate my time to something else but cleaning it myself is also good.

Electric Tanks?

Electric vehicles have a future in armies, especially when it comes to light vehicles. EVs have a lower heat signature. The Russian military is experimenting with using electric motorcycles that they are using in their storm trooper units. I am not very knowledgeable in this area but I have heard of weapons that take out electric devices.

Electric tanks would be less noisy and there would be less of a risk of a fire. I wonder how they manage this technologically. Have you seen a Tesla Truck trying to climb a hill? Have you seen Tesla on fire from a damaged battery? Mind you, these tanks will be hit with rockets and suicide drones flying at high velocity, and one would need to pack a shit loads of power to make this thing run.

At the end of the day, there are weapons coming out of research and development being introduced into production only to shine at one battlefield and totally suck at another. Also, war makes weapons quickly obsolete. Think Bayraktar, Javelin, or even HIMARS. Think of the horse in WWI…

PS: This allegedly is an electric off road bike from Kalashnikov…

Dedollarization

This rant might be a little disjointed…

So, a tectonic shift is happening. I would say this is the end of globalization as we knew it. It could entail both the fragmentation of the World into various civilization clusters but also new ways of international interaction. Perhaps this is not the end of globalization but rather a Western oriented globalization. The BRICS is sort of a rebellion of the rest against the West.

Dollar might be the most used foreign currency at the moment but the US government has been using the dollar to punish countries that misbehave. Russia and Iran have a direct interest at dedollarization. China and Saudi Arabia are looking for alternatives that they could employ should they find themselves in a similar situation. But a large part of the World have their heads deep in America’s arse.

There really is only one currency for an ecosystem. And it is going to be either the dollar or the BRICS digital token if they launch something like this. This idea made me a BTC maximalist. There really should be one currency to rule them all, and due to the vanity of the national governments there isn’t. The Euro has been a project aiming in that direction but the Euro is a crap currency and it in my opinion keeps Mediterranean countries poor.

Equality and neutrality are important. We lived for a long time in an unequal World, where the West issued the currency, and set the prices, and this World is coming to an end. Grain will be traded at exchanges outside the US, and other commodities will be traded without Western input. The West will lose its advantage but I am not certain how quickly the adoption of the new system would be. Would countries like Saudi Arabia, Japan, or the countries of Europe ditch the dollar, will they use it alongside whatever arises from BRICS?

Murica is still the largest economy per capita at least. It is the leader in energy, AI, and aerospace. It has a large network of vassals that suck up to it out of fear or awe. Historically, the global currencies were dethroned by wars. The Spanish Hapsburgs that introduced the dollar to the World (the dollar has its origins in the Bohemian mining town Joachimsthal, the Thaler became the dollar) became bankrupted by Wars of Religion in Europe, the Dutch lost war to the English. The Second World War has weakened Britain so much they gave in to Americans. So, will there be war?

Sister

Star Wars were from the start used to sell figurines of Darth Vader and plush Ewoks to children. Disney Star Wars is used to feed you ideological slop. Meet Sister, a new transsexual storm trooper…

Even has the colors of a trans flag on his armour…

Did you know that the Rebel Alliance was inspired by the Vietcong? That would mean the Empire is the globohomo Empire. Makes all the sense now…