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I believe this is due to a surge in imports in response to looming tariffs - supply chains are trying to stockpile before they hit. I am skeptical that this stockpiling is significantly displacing real investment.

The way that the figures are calculated views imports as a negative factor to GDP (because NET exports is an input to the model). Please correct me if I am wrong.

In any event, view the headline with suspicion.


Imports are neutral to GDP. The reason they're subtracted in the standard formula for GDP is that makes it easier to count.

GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Exports - Imports

The reason that imports are subtracted is because Consumption, Government Spending and Exports all have a domestic and imported component. So instead you could have GDP = (Domestically produced consumption) + Investment + (Government spending on domestic products) + (Domestically produced Exports) and not subtract imports.

But that's a lot harder to measure than measuring totals and subtracting imports.


Imports may be neutral to GDP, but they aren't neutral to this forecasting model [1]

[1] https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/03/a-comment-on-gdpn...


Yes, they're part of the model because they're not excluded during consumption calculations.


> this is due to a surge in imports in response to looming tariffs

“GDPNow is an excellent tracking model, however, the January surge in imports - especially for gold - caused the model to move negative. As the Atlanta Fed noted: ‘the contribution of net exports to first-quarter real GDP growth fell from -0.41 percentage points to -3.70 percentage points’.

Usually there would be an offsetting increase in inventories, but that is a lagging indicator. This is a short-term distortion and will balance out over the next month or so. I don't expect negative GDP in Q1.”

[1] https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/03/a-comment-on-gdpn...


I think, this named deferred demand - people known before about new tariffs and buy really need things before new policy taken effect, so now will be some time without new buys.

It will normalize in few years, may be for some markets in few months, and for some will need decades, from EU practice.


> Anyone who can pay this, can run private tests and compare scores.

Yes, by uploading the tests to a server controlled by OpenAI/Anthropic/etc


These prompts are fielding millions of queries. The test questions are a small part of them. Further, the server doesn't know if it got the right answer or not, so it can't even train on them. Whereas in the arrangement with the testing companies before release, they can potentially do so, as the they are given the scores.


Companies with actual profits can, and do, simply buy back their own stock. Inflating market expectation of future cashflows is not the only way to realize asset appreciation.


> i'm the one who set the password

You, personally, set the password to a public internet-facing database to 'abc123'?

And if you really did, how much do you estimate that increased your 'velocity'?


you built a internal project, co-hosted with a database, with a password 'abc123'

a month later, your manager decided to share it with other teams, the decision was made in a meeting which you're not invited

when the manager came to you, you asked:

- how about give me a week to make it a saas, with authn/authz

- no, we don't have the time, just tell them the endpoint and the password

another month later, something changed, your company built a partership with another company, your manager decided to share the project with teams in the other company

you asked:

- how about we do something like virtual network peering so that we can share a connected network with our parter

- it's complex, we can not change the network status of our partner, and we don't have a responsible role for this work, just give them the endpoint and the password

password 'abc123' is just a analogy, in this case, there's no password at all


And virtual network peering requires a license in China anyway.


I literally can hear Jimmy Yang as Jian Yang in Silicon Valley narrate this...!


No, he clearly said that a "second home for humanity" is of dubious (but potentially nonzero) value.

Rather, the main benefit would lie in the technological advances made in order to enable such a Mars mission in the first place (similar to advances during Apollo).


>Rather, the main benefit would lie in the technological advances made in order to enable such a Mars mission in the first place

I agree with this view, but the comment I was replying to only mentioned as a benefit that Mars could be a second home (which I find rather ridiculous).


> the comment I was replying to only mentioned as a benefit that Mars could be a second home

The first and second sentences of that comment literally say

> A Mars mission would benefit humanity, but less directly. The past lunar missions and space program benefited humanity in many ways.

And then it goes on to acknowledge the "second home" element, but only as a small consideration.


"that comment literally say" even thought it doesn't say that one of the benefit would be "technological advances" so in reality "that comment literally doesn't say it" and that's why I was asking.


As of 1/1/2025 the residential average rate paid for the municipal utility of Santa Clara, CA is $0.175/kWh vs a residential average of $0.425/kWh for PG&E

https://www.siliconvalleypower.com/residents/rates-and-fees

PG&E has an 11% margin on those rates because they keep burning the state down and having to pay for it. Municipal utilities don't have to worry about that.

The only thing that could be seriously considered a downside is that Santa Clara, CA is now absolutely jam-packed with data centers that have low employment per sqft.


If you come into contact with a harvester, it should be clear that it's a harvester, correct.

If you come into contact with a dough mixer, it should be clear that it's a dough mixer.

But if you come into a contact with a book, I imagine you might have trouble recognizing it.


> * Having written all that, I will add that "government" above means the US Federal government, not all the other ones. State, local, have a lot of latitude to make whatever laws they want, unless a federal law specifically prohibits it.

This is not entirely correct. In general many elements of the Constitution are incorporated and apply at all levels of government. It even outranks state constitutions where the two conflict.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_R...


In other words, states have a lot of latitude to make whatever laws they want, unless a federal law specifically prohibits it?


No, in other words, states and local governments are also bound by the Constitution in many of the the same ways that the federal government is.

The major difference is the Tenth Amendment, which sets the states apart by specifying that any powers not "delegated to" the federal government are reserved exclusively for the states. (In practice courts have found many "implied powers" that are not explicitly enumerated).

Federal laws are distinct from the Constitution.


No, those aren't other words for the GP's statement.

The Constitution, its Amendments, and decisions of the Supreme Court are not 'federal laws'.


> A single house is exposed on five sides.

Six. The most heat escapes through the roof, but thermal loss through the floor is generally about 10-15% of the total.


> It’s too late. It was too late 18 months ago. Nvidia is over 30x bigger. Qualcomm is 2x, AMD is 2x.

AMD came back from odds much longer than this. At its nadir, AMD's market cap was about a billion. A billion! Jensen's jacket collection is worth more than that.

Anyway, it's not looking good for Intel but it's certainly not "too late".


If they can dominate with process, no it’s not too late. If their process is on par with TSMC? I don’t know. Like I said, they need a world beater else margins erode dramatically. They have assets, they have value and Intel has done it again and again for decades but unless there is something that is a tier better than anything else margins drop and they just forced their “technical CEO” out.

They have had ultra success in the past, I don’t see anything on the roadmap to suggest a repeat of that, there is a lot of institutional memory of that success. With a long term plan, a board that is knows it’s going to be a journey and the CHIPS money, there is a story, make X86S a reality… I think there will be incredible pressure to cut and sell it though. If the new fabrication technology is only as good as the competition, I think that makes Intel an even more attractive take over target for the fabless giants


> nadir

Great word, TIL.


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