Why China, Buffett, and Media are Wrong
They aren't New Yorkers
As I was doing my daily research, I happened to see this meme on China outmaneuvering Trump
I didn’t know what I was looking at initially, then I realized it’s a parody of the gigachad white man
According to ChatGPT, the Chinese version is attempting to communicate that:
China can sit back while the U.S.:
overreacts,
fights internally,
prints money,
changes policy every 4 years,
gets distracted by social/media drama,
or exhausts itself geopolitically.
Meanwhile, China is portrayed as:
patient,
strategic,
manufacturing-focused,
thinking in decades instead of election cycles.
So the humor is:
“America is sprinting around chaotically… and China thinks it can win simply by waiting.”
Even patriotic, Jack Posobiec, part of the media that is more favorable to Trump, shares the contrasting negotiation tactics:
Let’s break it down from a different view of geography:
Buffett and Xi are country folks. Cold-hearted, but homespun. They are both the image of patience and compounding.
Buffett worked in New York once with the legendary Benjamin Graham and then went back home to start a hedge fund.
Xi spent time in America as a lad, but never in New York.
From the mightiest US company that owns boring stuff to the Chairman of a vast country with thousands of years of history, change is not something you want.
You want everything as it was, and compound growth and power.
Dr. John Rutledge said it plainly: “China thinks in centuries. Americans think in soundbites.”
The meme’s point is tight. America overreacts, prints money, fights itself, and flips policy every four years. China waits.
Beautiful thesis.
And makes a lot of sense since the mightiest US company (Berkshire), which owns boring stuff, to the Chairman of a vast country with 1000s of years of history, change is not something you want.
You want everything to be as it was, with things compounding growth and power.
Yes, a wonderful wish, but it does not reflect the reality of our universe
Nor how the US keeps growing. The more the US looks like a mess, the more powerful it is.
Conflict is what keeps the US together.
Peace, Hosseinas, and Utopia will never exist in this country that has the right to pursue happiness.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
-Thomas Jefferson (the writer of the Declaration of Independence)
Thomas Jefferson knew this when he became a New Yorker as Secretary of State to George Washington, because any New Yorker knows, since it was known as New Amsterdam, that anything can change in a New York minute, and why, despite it all, it hasn’t fallen into a ball of flame with all the incessant corruption.
Peter Navarro, a famous economist and advisor to Trump, dubbed Trump’s quick manner as “Trump Speed,” but it’s really how any successful New Yorker moves, and I guess why even the head of Citadel is remiss to move completely out of the city.
Buffett and Xi are playing basketball like they are up 20 points and can coast over the opponent without realizing the opponent is going to outhustle them and beat them at the buzzer.
Just observe New York professional sports to see what’s up
The world is living in socialist times, while our White House is moving in a New York minute.
Anything can happen, you realize…
in a New York minute
The irony is that Buffett, the patient country gentleman, owns shares in the institution that most embodies New York's belief in its own permanence.
I just don’t believe the NY Times, nor New York, has the monopoly-esque location that the Washington Post of yore did.
The Gray Lady and its readership forgot their relationship with each other.
With a new generation, and New York possibly losing its dominance, the NY Times could crash in stock price, especially if the lawsuits and accusations of treason by the President amount to anything
In particular, this company, as Buffett owns shares of the NY Times, and he is not a fan of the current resident of the White House.
Regardless, shouldn’t there be a discount for this risk?
Do you really believe it should trade at wild all-time highs?
There may be cheap puts to buy if a market crash occurs. Lets watch and see
I’ll conclude with a comment by Stonewall Jackson, who was the great leader of the Confederacy, who, despite the odds, held his ground. You can’t think in centuries when the man, your enemy, is about to defeat you.
