The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+67 -- August 6, 2018

Tariffs: News readers on CNBC are slowly turning, admitting that "free trade" means a) zero tariffs; and, b) zero non-tariff barriers to trade. They cited Harley-Davidson this morning whose CEO has said global tariffs are a significant problem for the company.

Market: it could be a good day on the market -- certainly for some stocks. Berkshire is up over 2% in pre-market trading -- reflecting its surge in profits on the back of its AAPL holdings.

WTI: up over 1.4% -- now solidly above $69 again, and headed back toward $70. John Kemp suggested we were in "severe backwardation" in a tweet in late June.

Later, market opening:

• BRK-B: us over 3%; up about $7/share, now trading above $207; still not at 52-week high;
• AAPL: flat, holding;
• UNP: down a dollar; down 0.67%
• S: up 6% -- wow, that's nice
• CVX: flat
• COP: flat
• OAS: up 1%
• NOG: down 4%

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The Book Page

Did Truman let us down? I don't know. I don't know anything about the Korean War.

President Truman, president, 1945 - 1953.

Korean armistice, from time of earliest discussions to signing: 1950 - 1953.

Talks ended in a stalemate; end of fighting; but divided peninsula and a legacy that continues to be problematic, to say the least.

I was reminded of that while reading Ravensbrueck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women, Sarah Helm, c. 2014.

A close reading of the book, especially in the later chapters, suggest that the Allies were under a huge amount of pressure to sign an armistice with the Nazis, and that the concentration camps gave the Germans and their chief negotiator, Heinrich Himmler, a lot of leverage. With what little I know from the Patton movie, one wonders if the American generals, and perhaps the British generals, were instrumental in an unconditional surrender. I suppose, one could argue, the situation was reversed between the US / Britain: US military would not accept anything less than an unconditional surrender; the politicians in Washington, maybe ready to sign an armistice. The Brits: no way would Churchill consider anything less than an unconditional armistice. As portrayed in the Patton movie, one wonders if the British generals would have accepted something less.

But with an incredible lack of understanding and knowledge about either conflict, it certainly looks like -- despite all the praise he gets -- with regard to Korea, Truman let us down.

This is written in context with what the women at Ravensbrueck experienced. Outside of that context, I have no opinion.