RaiNews: Borse europee in rosso, pesante la difesa
Milano tocca la parità in chiusura, Londra contiene le perdite a -0,43%; segno negativo superiore al punto percentuale per Parigi e Francoforte, la peggiore
European stocks are down, defense is heavy.
Milan touches parity at the close, London contains losses at -0.43%; a negative sign exceeding one percent for Paris and Frankfurt, the worst.
#European #Milan #London #-043% #onepercent #Paris #Frankfurt
The Architecture of Abandonment: What the Billionaire Bunker Tells Us About the Coming Century
There’s an old saying in the theatre that if you see a gun in the first act, it will be fired in the third act. We are seeing the same drama play out in our real lives as the Billionaire Oligarchs of the world load their Doomsday bunkers in the act one, and we, the unwashed and unknown, prepare for its firing in act three. Yes, the dramatic arc carries its own answer. Mark Zuckerberg’s Koʻolau Ranch on Kauai, valued north of three hundred million dollars, includes two mansions joined by a tunnel that leads to a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, sealed behind a blast-resistant metal door packed with concrete, with its own living quarters, mechanical room, and escape hatch. The compound is engineered for self-sufficiency in water, energy, and food, monitored by round-the-clock security and a six-foot perimeter wall, with construction crews bound by non-disclosure agreements that have been enforced through firings. The owner of that property has called it “a little shelter,” “like a hurricane shelter, whatever,” in remarks to Bloomberg. The engineering specifications tell a different story. Blast doors and escape hatches are absent from the standard Hawaiian hurricane code. They appear on the architectural plans of people who expect to be hunted.
These are not isolated cases. Peter Thiel was granted New Zealand citizenship in June 2011 under an “exceptional circumstances” clause after spending only twelve days in the country, less than one percent of the typical 1,350-day residency requirement. In 2015 he purchased a 477-acre estate at Glendhu Bay on Lake Wānaka through a private entity called Second Star Limited, named for a reference to Peter Pan, and commissioned a hillside lodge complex from the Tokyo Olympic Stadium architect Kengo Kuma; the Queenstown-Lakes District Council rejected the proposal in 2022 on landscape-impact grounds, and an Environment Court appeal failed. Sam Altman, in his 2016 New Yorker profile, described his own preparedness inventory: guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks issued by the Israeli Defense Forces, and a private patch of land in Big Sur he can fly to, with Thiel’s New Zealand house as his backup plan. Larry Ellison bought ninety-eight percent of Lānaʻi in 2012 for three hundred million dollars from David Murdock, including the water utility, two Four Seasons resorts, and roughly a third of the island’s housing stock; three thousand residents now live on land overwhelmingly held by one private owner.
The most revealing evidence comes not from the architectural drawings but from a single sentence spoken in private. Douglas Rushkoff, a media-theory professor at Queens College, was paid roughly half his annual salary to fly to a desert resort in 2017 to address what he assumed would be an audience of investment bankers; he found instead five hedge fund billionaires who wanted to know which region would be more survivable, Alaska or New Zealand, whether Ray Kurzweil really was uploading his consciousness, and at last, from the CEO of a brokerage house who had nearly completed his own underground bunker system, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” That last question is the smoking gun. The man asking it has already built a bunker, stocked it, hardened it, and hired guards. He has thought past the apocalypse, past the moment when capital ceases to function as a coordination mechanism, past the question of how to retain feudal control over armed retainers in a post-monetary world. He is calm. He has accepted the loss of the system that produced his wealth, and he is calculating the second move.
The middle class is the first move. Every dollar of attention extracted by a social-media platform, each hour of labor metered by a delivery app, retirement accounts loaded with index funds that hold the same fifty companies, tax dollars flowing up the bracket through preferential treatment of capital gains: all of it funds the apparatus that will be used to leave the rest of us behind. The hedge fund manager’s bunker was built with pension money. Zuckerberg’s Hawaiian compound was paid for by the data labor of three billion people who joined Facebook because their friends were there. Thiel’s New Zealand citizenship was a sovereign gift to a man who has never been required to live in the country, granted on the theory that his presence would benefit the nation, by a government persuaded that the benefit had already been delivered through his arrival in the cabinet minister’s office.
The objections write themselves and they all collapse on inspection. The first claim is that these are rich-person hobbies, no different in kind from yachts. Yachts do not require self-sufficient food, water, and energy systems, do not depend on non-disclosure agreements covering construction crews, and remain visible by design. The defining features of the bunker are invisibility, redundancy, and operational independence from civic infrastructure. A yacht assumes the world keeps working. A bunker assumes it does not. The second claim is that these are insurance policies, not statements of intent. Insurance is purchased against losses one believes plausible. The act of buying apocalypse insurance at this scale is itself a data point about what the purchasers expect. If the men with the most access to economic, scientific, and political information are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to harden private exits, that information deserves a hearing.
The third claim is that climate adaptation is rational and the rest of us should do the same. Rational climate adaptation funds public seawalls, public power grids, public emergency services, and public housing relocation. Private adaptation at the billionaire scale withdraws resources from the common pool. The grain that feeds the cattle on Koʻolau Ranch is grain that does not feed the rest of Kauai. The water in the fifty-five-foot-diameter tank does not flow to neighbors. The fenced acreage on Lānaʻi cannot be walked across by the locals whose ancestors are buried there. The fourth claim is that the argument amounts to conspiracy thinking. Every fact assembled here comes from public records, court filings, planning applications, on-the-record interviews, and the billionaires’ own statements. The conspiracy, if there is one, is being conducted in plain view, with planning permits filed and architectural renderings published.
The fifth claim, usually muttered rather than spoken, is that the argument sounds envious. The argument tracks structures, and not personalities. How much money any individual billionaire holds matters less than whether the political order they have helped construct will survive the next thirty years for the rest of us, and the bunkers answer that question. Some of the very wealthy give large portions of their fortunes away during their lifetimes, fund public health initiatives at scale, and have signed pledges to deplete their estates in the name of philanthropy. The argument here concerns a different subset, the ones who have looked at the trajectory and concluded that the rational allocation of capital is toward private hardening rather than public repair. They are an instructive sample because their behavior reveals the working theory of capital itself, and the working theory holds that the system is not worth saving on its current terms.
Democracy assumes shared fate. The whole project of representative government rests on the premise that the people making decisions live in the same world as the people affected by them, breathe the same air, drink the same water, send their children to schools at minimum adjacent to ours. When the decision-makers build self-contained habitats with private water, private food, private energy, and private security, they sever the feedback loop that makes democracy work. Their interest in public infrastructure terminates at the gatehouse. Public health concerns them only as far as the perimeter wall. Climate stability matters to them insofar as they expect to outrun it. The middle class has historically been the buffer between the rich and the poor, absorbing economic shocks through household savings, generational housing wealth, and pension solvency, dampening political shocks through civic participation, jury duty, school board attendance, and local journalism, and providing the cultural ballast that kept the country from tipping. That buffer has thinned for forty years through wage stagnation, healthcare cost transfer, education debt, the conversion of pensions into self-managed retirement accounts, and the conversion of housing from shelter to speculative asset. The bunker is the announcement that the thinning is now sufficient and the wealthy are exiting the social contract entirely.
Consider the concrete consequences. When the next pandemic arrives, those who can ride it out behind blast doors will do so, while the rest will be sent back to work because the economy must run. The next climate event that closes a major American city will find the people with helicopters and private islands on the helicopters and private islands, while their fellow citizens take shelter or scramble onto rooftops. As for the next major financial event, those whose assets are denominated in farmland, gold, hardened compounds, and offshore citizenships will weather it, while the rest lose their houses for the third time in twenty-five years. The bunker is a hedge against the failure of the system that paid for the bunker. It is a short position on civilization, financed by the people whose civilization it is.
Rushkoff gave the hedge fund managers good advice. He told them that the most reliable way to maintain authority over their security force after the event was to treat those people well right now, and the most reliable way to prevent the event was to extend the same ethos to everyone else. They paid his fee and went back to building bunkers. The middle class faces a related choice with a much shorter clock. Either we tax the men building the bunkers at rates that prevent them from completing the bunkers, or we accept that the country will be reorganized around finished bunkers. The same choice presents itself in antitrust enforcement, financial regulation, and progressive taxation: restore them to the levels that built the post-war middle class, or accept the bifurcation into hardened compound and precariat. None of those policies are exotic. They are the conditions under which the American middle class actually existed, between roughly 1945 and 1980, when the top marginal tax rate sat above seventy percent for most of the period and the country produced its single greatest expansion of upward mobility, public infrastructure, and home ownership.
The One Percenters do not build multi-billion-dollar bunkers on private islands as a hobby. They build them because they have run the numbers and the numbers tell them that the rest of us are not going to make it. Whether they are correct about the numbers is a question we get to answer collectively, while we still can answer anything collectively at all. The good news, if there is any, sits inside the same evidence. The bunker-builders are betting that civic life will fail. The bet pays out only if the rest of us let it.
#bunker #doomsday #elite #gop #middleClass #onePercent #payment #rent #rich #suffering
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]
More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/83260/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshowell #proverb #derangement #billionaire #crazed #insanity #madness #money #onepercent #perspective #riches #wealth
Il Fatto Quotidiano: Il discorso di Trump affossa le borse: i mercati europei aprono in rosso, il petrolio sale oltre i 105 dollari al barile
Il crollo dei listini asiatici, l’apertura in rosso di tutte le Borse europee e il petrolio che schizza del 4% a oltre 105 dollari al barile. Sono gli effetti sui mercati del discorso alla nazione del presidente Usa, Donald Trump. Le sue parole, in particolare sulla guerra in Iran, hanno scatenato l’incertezza e non sono riuscite a rassicurare i mercati globali. Al contrario, hanno riacceso i timori per una escalation delle tensioni internazionali.
Le borse asiatiche sono sprofondate dopo il discorso di Trump. In particolare Seul, con l’indice generale in calo del 4,47% in chiusura, mentre il Nikkei di Tokyo ha concluso la seduta di contrattazioni cedendo il 2,40%. Chiude in calo anche la borsa di Sidney che perde un punto percentuale. In ribasso, infine, anche tutti i listini cinesi, da Shanghai a Hong Kong.
In questo contesto, le principali Borse europee hanno tutte aperto in rosso. Al momento, a registrare la performance peggiore è Francoforte: l’indice Dax cede l’1,49%. Male anche Parigi, lievemente più limitate le perdite per Londra. Piazza Affari nei primi scambi conferma la partenza negativa con l’indice Ftse Mib che scende dell’1,2%, sostanzialmente in linea con il listino francese. A Milano, tra i titoli a elevata capitalizzazione il peggiore è Avio che scende del 4%, seguito da Stm in ribasso del 3,5%. Male anche le banche, mentre Eni corre del 3% anche sul rialzo del prezzo del petrolio.
Che è l’altro effetto del discorso di Trump. Il Brent, il riferimento internazionale del greggio, è balzato del 4,9% a 106,16 dollari al barile. Pesa in particolare il fatto che il presidente Usa nel suo discorso non abbia menzionato l’imminente scadenza che aveva fissato per l’Iran per la riapertura dello Stretto di Hormuz, la via navigabile cruciale per il trasporto globale di petrolio e gas, dopo aver minacciato in precedenza l’Iran di attacchi statunitensi contro le sue infrastrutture energetiche se lo stretto non fosse stato riaperto. In calo i prezzi dell’oro e dell’argento. L’oro ha perso il 2%, attestandosi a 4.718,70 dollari l’oncia, mentre l’argento ha ceduto il 4,9%, scendendo a 72,39 dollari l’oncia.
L'articolo Il discorso di Trump affossa le borse: i mercati europei aprono in rosso, il petrolio sale oltre i 105 dollari al barile proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Trump’s speech sends stocks tumbling: European markets open in the red, oil rises above $105 per barrel.
The collapse of Asian markets, the opening in the red of all European exchanges, and oil soaring by 4% to over $105 per barrel. These are the effects on markets of President Trump’s address to the nation. His words, particularly on the war in Iran, unleashed uncertainty and failed to reassure global markets. Instead, they reignited fears of an escalation of international tensions.
Asian markets plunged after Trump’s speech. Particularly Seoul, with the overall index down 4.47% at close, while the Nikkei in Tokyo ended the trading session down 2.40%. Sydney’s stock exchange also closed down, losing one percent. Finally, all Chinese exchanges, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, were also down.
In this context, the main European exchanges all opened in the red. Currently, Frankfurt is registering the worst performance: the Dax index is down 1.49%. Paris is also weak, with losses slightly more limited for London. Piazza Affari in the first exchanges confirms the negative start with the Ftse Mib index down 1.2%, essentially in line with the French listing. In Milan, among the large capitalization titles, the worst is Avio, down 4%, followed by Stm down 3.5%. Banks are also weak, while Eni is up 3% even on the rise in oil prices.
Which is the other effect of Trump’s speech. Brent, the international benchmark for crude oil, jumped 4.9% to $106.16 per barrel. The fact that President Trump did not mention the imminent expiration that he had set for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial navigable waterway for global transport of oil and gas, after previously threatening Iran with U.S. attacks against its energy infrastructure if the strait were not reopened, weighs in particular. Prices of gold and silver fell. Gold lost 2%, standing at $4,718.70 per ounce, while silver fell 4.9%, down to $72.39 per ounce.
The article Trump’s Speech Sends Stock Markets Plummeting: European Markets Open in the Red, Oil Rises Above $105 per Barrel comes from Il Fatto Quotidiano.
#Trump #European #Asian #Seoul #Tokyo #Sydney #onepercent #Chinese #Shanghai #HongKong #Frankfurt #Paris #London #PiazzaAffari #first #FtseMib #French #Milan #Brent #theStraitofHormuz #IlFattoQuotidiano
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2026/04/02/trump-mercati-petrolio-crisi-notizie/8343457/
Il discorso alla nazione del presidente Usa ha alimentato l'incertezza sui mercati: sprofondano i listini asiatici, Piazza Affari in apertura scende dell’1,2%. Il Brent è balzato del 4,9% dopo le mancate rassicurazioni sullo stretto di Hormuz
RaiNews: Il prezzo del petrolio si stabilizza, borse europee in lieve salita
Si sta stabilizzando anche il prezzo del gas: è quotato 50,9 euro al megawattora, meno 1 per cento. A contribuire ai ribassi l'accordo tra il governo iracheno e il governo regionale del Kurdistan Iracheno per riprendere le esportazioni di petrolio
The price of oil stabilizes, European stock markets up slightly.
The price of gas is also stabilizing: it is quoted at €50.9 per megawatt-hour, down one percent. The agreement between the Iraqi government and the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan to resume oil exports is also contributing to the declines.
Si sta stabilizzando anche il prezzo del gas: è quotato 50,9 euro al megawattora, meno 1 per cento. A contribuire ai ribassi l'accordo tra il governo iracheno e il governo regionale del Kurdistan Iracheno per riprendere le esportazioni di petrolio
@MikeDunnAuthor ...
« The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists. » ~ Hannah ARRENDT
Great idea for tackling the climate crisis!
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP894Q719/
#environment #climate #rich #inequity #onepercent #eattherich
“Just the sheer animosity and the insane amount o finance and whatnot that went into trying to stop this one guy who likes:
universal child care
free buses
He’s a mayor - no foreign policy in anyway for like a mayor”
“Brad Lander is a liberal Zionist. The fact that Brad Lander campaigned with him during the primary is the reason he won the primary.”
“We cannot discount the fact that liberal Zionism is the mainstream position in America, if not far-right Zionism. So the fact that he was like, I'm pro-Palestinian, but lots of liberal Zionists literally campaigned for him. And like celebrities and stuff, that disarmed that community in some way.
And I actually just read on Bluesky, there's this, an Israeli professor who's based in California, who I follow, he works on taxation policy. That's irrelevant to this point, but he was like, I just had to have a conversation with my family back in Israel, how I would prefer an anti-Zionist one to a sexual predator for mayor. And it's like, you're forcing them to make that choice, and you're winning as a result, instead of, you know, what is it that some of the pro-Palestinian left is doing right now”
From The Fire These Times: 208/ What Mamdani's Victory Means, Nov 11, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fire-these-times/id1503094935?i=1000736255453&r=473
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Lock In, ch. 3 [Shane] (2014)
More about this quote: wist.info/scalzi-john/35293/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #scalzi #johnscalzi #lockin #cost #deal #exchange #favor #involvement #money #onepercent #price #quidproquo #rich #service #transaction #wealth #wealthy
Rich people show their appreciation through favors. When everyone you know has more money than they know what to do with, money stops being a useful transactional tool. So instead you offer favors. Deals. Quid pro quos. Things that involve personal involvement rather than money. Because when you're that rich,…
John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Lock In, ch. 6 (2014)
More about this quote: wist.info/scalzi-john/35353/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnscalzi #arrogance #billionaire #ego #elite #millionaire #onepercent #plutocrats #predator #rich #sociopath #superiority #wealth #wealthy #oligarch
My father deals with millionaires and billionaires on a daily basis, the sort of people who have egos just this side (and sometimes way over the edge) of sociopathy. The sort of person who thinks he’s the apex predator wading through a universe of sheep.
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