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Bad Bond Times · Stuff Keeps Happening

• 0:00
  Hello. I subverted the invasion of an intergalactic
• 0:03
  tyrant. But stuff still happened. So what's up?
• 0:09
  It's the stupid economy. That's what Bill Clinton
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  said before he went to Epstein's Island. After?
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  Who knows? It's a pretty dumb economy. The US
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  economy is kind of busted. Some Americans, like
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  Donald Trump and his family, might find it to
• 0:23
  be a pretty good economy as they've made billions
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  of dollars during his incumbency. Great for them.
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  Love hearing an American success story, but for
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  the hundreds of millions of other people in this
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  country, it's not great. It's not. Maybe you
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  can't land a job. Maybe you can't get a raise.
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  Maybe you can't pay food. America. Land of the
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  free. Free to choose between food, medicine,
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  and shelter. Anyway, don't worry, because the
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  government is working on it. They are attacking
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  the problem by going after the bond market. you
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  know, that thing that you are very much focused
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  on with regards to affordability right now, that's
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  how we got to fix it. So they're working on it.
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  They're working on the bond market. Unfortunately,
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  it's this administration, and working on it usually
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  translates to absolutely destroying it. Anyway,
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  Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is definitely
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  working on it. We find ourselves in a precarious
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  position. We're in an endless war, again, with
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  Iran, and this one comes with the added bonus
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  of fucking up global oil trade. That is having
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  an impact on our economy, and it's also driving
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  up the price of diesel, which, in the US, drives
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  up the price of everything, because our entire
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  economy is based on trucking. Meanwhile, everything's
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  bad. I don't feel like I need to give supporting
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  facts for that one. Enter Scott Besson. A dumbass.
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  Here are my arguments for that. One, he decided
• 1:45
  to join with the Trump administration, which
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  is a questionable decision from anyone, especially
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  a gay man. He's gay, but hey, he's the highest
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  -ranking gay official in U .S. history, so...
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  Go Republicans, didn't realize you were so progressive.
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  Congratulations, you put a gay guy in charge
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  of the Treasury. Unfortunately, he sucks still.
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  Because sexual orientation has nothing to do
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  with how good you are at your job. So what did
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  he do? Well, the bond market is trash right now.
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  And before we go any further, I want to say I
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  am not an economy boy, not a financial analyst.
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  I don't have a degree in economics. If you want
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  actual like financial analysis stuff, I highly
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  recommend checking out Kyla Scanlon. But for
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  our purposes, we're gonna do a very stuff keeps
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  happening version. of all of this. Bonds. They're
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  basically a loan to the government from people
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  who are not the government. And they're basically
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  saying, yeah, I'll buy up debt that you own so
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  that you can keep operating, and you promise
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  to pay me back with interest based on your continued
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  operation. There are short -term bonds and long
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  -term bonds. We're gonna be talking about long
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  -term bonds mostly, but it's generally a difference
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  between, I think you'll be able to pay me back
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  soon, or I think you'll be able to pay me back...
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  in the long run. Now, when people aren't willing
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  to purchase long -term bonds, it's largely because
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  they don't think that that country is going to
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  be able to pay them back. Guess what's happening?
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  The bond market is flooded and people are not
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  buying it up. And so rates are going way up.
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  That's not good. You don't want that combination.
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  So Scott Besson was like, here's how we're going
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  to fix this problem. The U .S. Treasury is going
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  to announce a two billion dollar buyback we're
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  gonna we're gonna slurp up all this excess to
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  fix the market then he came back and he was like
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  actually we're gonna triple that and also it
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  didn't work the market didn't respond as he was
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  hoping it went the other direction rates continued
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  to go up and we are now at a local maximum it's
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  the highest it's been since october of 2023 peaking
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  over five percent largely what this means is
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  The obvious reality of how bad things are can't
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  be masked forever, and the treasury doesn't have
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  a magic wand to just cover it up indefinitely.
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  We're not looking at a catastrophic failure mode
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  of the US economy in the immediate future, but
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  we do have 40 trillion dollars of debt now, and
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  we're not able to continue selling off that debt.
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  That's not a great combo. Of course, none of
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  this matters, because the Dow is over 50 ,000,
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  and we should all remain focused on that fact,
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  because famously, the bond market and the stock
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  market have zero impact on each other. They do.
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  They do have a pretty significant impact on each
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  other. So yeah, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson
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  was like, hmm, the bond market is messed up.
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  I'm going to announce a big shift to try to fix
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  it. That shift didn't work. So he tripled the
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  size of said shift and it didn't work. Well done.
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  Maybe we can fix it if we bomb more countries.
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  And now, self -promo so fast, you won't even
• 4:44
  need to skip it. What's up? Thanks for being
• 4:46
  here. If you haven't subscribed yet, you should
• 4:48
  do that. And also, I have a merch store. And
• 4:51
  also, there's a newsletter version of this show.
• 4:54
  And you can subscribe to it, for free or paid,
• 4:56
  if you want to support me. And I have a Patreon.
• 4:58
  Bye! Hey, I'm back. I don't know why I said bye
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  at the end of that. This is, like, the beginning
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  of the rest of the show. Let's keep moving on.
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  Not even death can save you from me. Hello. I'm
• 5:09
  a union. About 1 ,900 employees at Activision
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  Blizzard have formally unionized and got a contract
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  ratified, winning them a whole bunch of good
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  stuff. Activision Blizzard, they make World of
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  Warcraft, Diablo, etc. They just recently had
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  BlizzCon. They announced World of Warcraft, Diablo.
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  Etc. Their parent company is Microsoft, and Microsoft
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  is Xbox, and Microsoft and Xbox have been a big
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  part of this massive industry wave of layoffs.
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  The tech industry, and the gaming industry especially,
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  have been just wave after wave of layoffs, seemingly
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  with just no rhyme or reason. We've seen studios
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  with commercial success lose half their workforce,
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  just fuck you guys. Goodbye. And so in the midst
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  of all of this, A unionization contract landing
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  at Blizzard is a pretty big deal. There's also
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  a handful of industry firsts in this one. It
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  took them two years of negotiations, but they
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  finally landed, among other things, the right
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  to be recalled up to 14 months after a layoff
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  event if they need to refill that position. Increased
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  severance pay across the board. A provision that
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  requires the company to negotiate the use of
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  AI with the employees. A required offering of
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  hybrid work schedule instead of requiring in
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  -office all five days. More disability accommodations
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  for employees and a bunch of other stuff raises
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  severance. Did I ever say severance? Well, Severance.
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  It shouldn't be a surprise that it took two years
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  to come to this contract agreement, and it really
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  shouldn't be a surprise that it took two years
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  to come to a contract agreement that has stuff
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  like, If you lay us off, please hire us back.
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  Like, that's... That's not a big ask. But it's
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  not like Activision Blizzard is known for being
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  super worker -friendly, especially in the past
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  couple of decades. But even just the past few
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  years, they've been actively trying to undermine
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  unionization efforts. There was a QA union effort
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  that they just totally tried to blow up. In 2022,
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  they tried to have the votes for a QA unionization
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  effort impounded. Trying to undermine that didn't
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  work. In 2023, the NLRB found merit in charges
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  against Blizzard about employee intimidation
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  over unionization efforts. So like, again, not
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  surprising. This is pretty par for the course
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  for all of these companies. But hey. Pizza party
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  contract. Except that contract took like multiple
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  years and organizing thousands of employees to
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  get that pizza party. If you need to organize
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  your workforce to get more than two slices of
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  pizza at a pizza party, something's wrong. I
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  just want to note for the record that there actually
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  was not anything about pizza parties in the union
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  contract. Moving on. Technology. In California.
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  There's been a bunch of tech bills signed into
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  law in California over the past couple of weeks.
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  Gavin Newsom. He wants to be the president. Probably.
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  I don't like his face. Anyway, he just signed
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  a bunch of bills into law. If you've so much
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  as breathed the air near the United States of
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  America, you have probably a pretty deep understanding
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  of how ill -equipped our legislators are to handle
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  tech policy. At the federal level, everyone who's
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  trying to craft tech policy was born before the
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  invention of the steamboat, and we're asking
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  them to do things like, hey, tell us what we
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  can do with AI and crypto. and also crack legislation
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  on how tech companies should manage social media
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  for minors. It's not a good situation. And so
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  we've got this country that's essentially 50
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  plus jurisdictions in a trench coat, and now
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  each of those jurisdictions is just like, well,
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  I guess I'll take it on my own dang self to craft
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  some tech policy. We have this like mosaic now.
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  of tech laws across the country, and it just
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  makes it so that you can't really adhere to anything
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  in a reasonable way, and it's only going to get
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  worse until we actually get reasonable federal
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  policy. Which is to say, it's only going to get
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  worse. So, California. Gavin Newsom just signed
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  a bunch of bills into law, and some of them make
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  some sense, some of them, why are we still doing
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  this? A few of the ones that are like, alright,
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  sure. They include AB1946, which strengthens
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  the reporting of child exploitation material
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  and the consequences for inaction of companies
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  not doing things about child exploitation material.
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  AB2 strengthens the legal basis for suing a social
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  media company over harm done to children. I don't
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  mind that. And AB2071 mandates that digital wellness
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  be taught in health class in school. Sure. I
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  don't know what that would look like, and I can't
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  think of anything more cringe than, like, a teacher
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  trying to teach students about how they should
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  use their devices in a responsible way. But why
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  not? Anyway, on the more... Oh no, why are we
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  still doing this side? AB 1856 is an amendment
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  to the 2025 Digital Age Assurance Act. It makes
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  a carve out for open source projects, which is
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  good, but what this act does is essentially say,
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  hey, if you are an operating system, you are
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  legally required to tell apps the age range of
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  the person who's using you. So the amendment,
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  okay, cool, like most open source operating systems
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  are not going to be affected by this. Nice. Um,
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  the rest of it... Oh no. The last thing that
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  we need are laws on the books mandating that
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  our devices tell corporations information about
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  us. We're already working to try to make it to
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  those corporations. Stop taking all of our data.
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  We don't need to encode that into law. The other
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  one that he signed was AB 1709 that it functionally
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  establishes a minimum age for social media by
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  saying that for users under a certain age, the
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  social media platform has to give them a more
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  stripped down, less addictive experience. No
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  video autoplay, no infinite scrolling feed, stuff
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  like that. It would essentially most likely just
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  make it so that the companies would ban minors.
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  in some way. Not great, because of how they might
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  go about trying to ban minors. Also, can I be
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  considered a minor? Because I don't actually
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  want infinite scrolling feeds or autoplaying
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  video. These laws are not unique. These are popping
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  up all over the place, and all over the place
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  around the world. Australia banned teenagers
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  from using social media recently, and it's all
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  taking a slightly different approach. Each one
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  has their own. Like, here's how we're going to
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  define what's bad and what's acceptable. but
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  none of it is actually targeting the problem.
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  What we need is policy targeting the data being
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  held and hoarded by these companies, as well
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  as maybe putting a cap on how much these companies
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  can be like their own country. Facebook has billions
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  of users. Like, billions! Is it actually reasonable
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  for a single corporation to have that many users?
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  And if so, is it actually reasonable to not have...
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  real, meaningful policy crafted around what they
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  can and can't do with those multiple billion
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  users. Anyway, I do think that social media is
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  bad for minors. Totally. I don't think the solution
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  is try to figure out how to ban certain people
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  from certain places on the internet, because
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  the only way you can do that is wild surveillance.
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  That's enough about that. Let's talk about the
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  sun. The sun. You've heard of it. It's in the
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  sky most days. Sometimes the moon gets a little
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  pushy. blocks it out for a bit. We don't mind
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  that. The moon, she's chill. It's fine. They
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  have an understanding. But the Sun is swirly.
• 12:16
  Now, I assume you have strong opinions about
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  Kelvin Helmholtz instability. Just quickly define
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  Kelvin Helmholtz instability for those who don't
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  know. Kelvin Helmholtz instability is a phenomenon
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  in like fluid dynamics where two different fluids
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  kind of like shear each other and cause them
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  to get all wavy. It happens in like atmospheres
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  and stuff. It can happen in clouds and make them
• 12:35
  all Wiggly -waggly, so you can kind of like see
• 12:37
  it happening in the sky. It also happens in the
• 12:39
  oceans. It's how like ocean mixing happens, but
• 12:42
  it turns out also happens on the Sun. Scientists
• 12:45
  used a like wildly powerful solar telescope to
• 12:49
  get the highest resolution photo of the surface
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  of the Sun that we've ever had, and it reveals
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  swirlies. The prevailing theory is that Kelvin
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  Helmholtz instability in the surface of the Sun's
• 13:00
  I guess like magnetic fields are causing flux.
• 13:05
  Weaves? Flux braiding. The Kelvin -Helmholtz
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  instability on the magnetic fields of the Sun's
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  corona is causing flux braiding. Not corona?
• 13:16
  Whatever the surface is. Anyway, that's cool.
• 13:20
  And that's also a really cool picture of the
• 13:22
  Sun. Thank you for that. Good to know the Sun
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  also has some strong Kelvin -Helmholtz instability
• 13:27
  opinions. Wonderful. And so with all that, lightning
• 13:31
  round. If you are in the state of Maryland, please
• 13:33
  be careful. There's been a series of beaver attacks
• 13:37
  in state parks on people in Maryland. Google
• 13:40
  is attempting to purchase a massive chunk of
• 13:43
  operational data from the now defunct Spirit
• 13:45
  Airlines. Turns out Mitch McConnell is technically
• 13:48
  alive. He was carted into the Senate. Barely
• 13:52
  moving, but technically alive. Apple has released
• 13:55
  iOS and Mac OS 27, which includes their big flagship
• 13:59
  Siri AI update. I guess series not as useless.
• 14:05
  An armadillo was found in Ohio. It was dead.
• 14:09
  I'm sorry to break your heart so quickly, but
• 14:12
  an armadillo corpse was found in Ohio, which
• 14:15
  is not a place that they usually migrate to.
• 14:17
  I want to quote a university professor who they
• 14:20
  got a quote from about this story. They said,
• 14:24
  I was hoping that they were going to make it
• 14:26
  here simply because I like armadillos. Very fair.
• 14:30
  And finally for today, Hugo, the world's tallest
• 14:33
  horse, stands at six foot five inches or about
• 14:36
  199 centimeters. He's apparently still growing
• 14:39
  because he's a big boy. You go, Hugo. Thank you
• 14:43
  so much for listening to today's episode of Stuff
• 14:45
  Keeps Happening. Head to skh .news for sources,
• 14:48
  bonus content and the final form of Hugo. My
• 14:52
  name is Endeavorance. We'll talk again soon.
• 14:54
  Take care and be well.