Locator: 48666LALO.
Lalo Schifrin at wiki. Link here.
Mission Imposssible at wiki. Link here.
Friday, July 4, 2025
UPS -- This Is A First In Its 117-Year History -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48665UPS.
UPS drivers: $170,000 in pay and benefits.
United Parcel Service is offering buyouts to delivery drivers for the first time in its 117-year history. The company is seeking cost savings because of stagnant parcel volumes, rising labor costs and a long slump in the company’s stock price.
UPS employs around 330,000 full- and part-time delivery drivers, clerks and package handlers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Full-time drivers are eligible for a buyout, the company said. UPS and the union declined to say how many full-time drivers UPS employs.
In 2023, UPS offered buyouts to its pilots in an effort to reduce head count and costs; nearly 200 pilots took the offer.
UPS decided to offer buyouts to its drivers because the company is navigating “an unprecedented business landscape” and reorganizing its network, a company spokesman said.
UPS drivers are among the highest-paid delivery drivers in the U.S. The average full-time driver will earn around $170,000 annually, including benefits, by the end of a five-year contract that UPS signed with the Teamsters in 2023. Many investors thought the company conceded too much ground to the union. UPS shares are down about 45% since July 24, 2023, the day before the company and the union reached their agreement.
UPS reported a 3.5% decline in the average daily package volume in the U.S. for the first quarter of this year, and has said it would deliver fewer packages for its largest customer, Amazon.com, because they aren’t profitable enough. In April, UPS said it would cut 20,000 operational jobs this year.
In our apartment complex:
- for every UPS truck that drives through the complex, I see six or seven Amazon vans and/or contracted POVs
- when getting out of a truck, a UPS driver has one package/box; the Amazon driver has three to five packages/boxes
Harvard: Does Their Endowment Really Exist? If It Does, Who Are The Beneficiaries? July 4, 2025
Locator: 48663HARVARD.
The Harvard endowment:
Harvard's endowment is the largest university endowment in the world, currently valued at $53.2 billion. It's a permanent source of funding that supports the university's teaching and research mission. The endowment is managed by Harvard Management Company, which invests the funds to generate revenue for the university. While a significant portion of the endowment is restricted for specific purposes, it still provides a substantial contribution to Harvard's operating budget, covering about 37% of the total.
So, over $50 billion in Harvard's endowment, and we get this headline WSJ sob-story. Something does not add up.
From the link:
Harvard University would face a budget shortfall of about a billion dollars a year if President Trump follows through on all of his plans and threats spanning research funding, tax policy and student enrollment, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
That grim math helps explain why Harvard has taken steps toward negotiating with the administration after months of defiance. The Journal’s estimate, based on publicly available data, is for a worst-case scenario in which Harvard loses all federal research funding, federal student aid and its ability to enroll international students, and Congress hikes its annual endowment tax to 8%.
A sustained shortfall of that magnitude would severely strain Harvard’s ability to manage its $6.4 billion annual operating budget. Though Harvard has a $53 billion endowment, more than 80% of the money is subject to donor restrictions, meaning it can’t be touched to patch budget gaps without inviting lawsuits.
“They’ve got enough money to keep going for a while, but eventually they’re going to have to make substantial cuts,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who studies education finance. “You would change the future of the institution.”
Does anyone really believe that quote?
Israel And Trump Are Re-Drawing Mideast Maps And Alliances -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48662MIDEAST.
I've blogged about this several times since the 12-day war.
By the way, I'm getting tired of calling this the 12-day war, except that it will be the best way to remember one of the most important events ever in the history of the never-ending Mideast story. I guess most stories involving decisive Israeli military successes are framed in days -- Six-Day War, Twelve-Day War.
Compare with the American war preceding the big one: the Seven-Years War.
Or the European 100-Years War.
But for the US, this "event" --- one can hardly call it a war, was measured "in minutes and hours," and in deaths less than one.
- 36-hours, non-stop, flight
- three (or maybe it was six, more or less): B-2s
- 35 minutes over Iran
- American casualties: 0
- Iranian casualties blamed on the US: also, zero
- friendly fire casualties: also, zero
- cost to the DOD: $0 -- the DOD will be reimbursed by the US State Department
But, back to the blog -- Israel and Trump are re-drawing Mideast maps and alliances. Examples follow.
Saudi Arabia:
not yet being reported by The NYT -- at least when I first started looking for this story last night:
Trump, while up all night pushing this OBBB through the US House, met secretly with the Saudi Arabian minister of defense; they saw eye-to-eye on absolutely everything; this link to Axios. Unfortunately after reading it last night, it's now behind a paywall. We'll find plenty of links later on. The link to Fox News is still the best, but Google's blogger app won't allow me to post it.
The Market -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48661MARKET.
There's so many incredible investing stories now being reported, it's impossible to keep up.
First, chart of the day: pending.
Second, hitting all-time highs yesterday, link here:
Third, BK in the screenshot above. This is one of my longest-held holdings. Later, I'll post a Warren Buffett link regarding "set and forget."
Fourth, Apple (AAPL): link here.
a
Source? LOL -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48660OILTYCOONDEATH.
This is probably the funniest thing I'll read all day. Link here.
No, it's not the "fact" that another oil tycoon -- this time the Transneft vice president -- died after falling through some window. Date not provided but I assume within the last 24 hours.
What makes this funny? Some guy appropriately -- it appears -- named "Jackal" wants a "source." LOL.
Slate: It's No Longer Under $20,000 -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48659DOA.
Who won? Link here.
That didn't take long. The bill passes and within minutes we have stories that the Slate will no longer be marketed as available "under $20,000."
I'll link the stories as I come across them. I think I have three in the queue.
I believe I was the only ad-free, subscription-free Bakken blog to mention the Slate when it was first revealed. I'll post that link when I find it; consider that fact-checking.
By the way, except for some production models and some marketing photo-ops, the Slate will be DOA.
The Verge, link here.
TechCrunch: link here.
TeckCrunch: link here.
From the blog, link here.
EV: Slate -- this is what you get for $27,000 (-$7,000 Federal credit) = $20,000 -- not much. InsideEVs, link here.
- no paint, no radio (much less stereo, LOL), no touchscreen
- Amazon's Bezos is a fan; link here;
- if it succeeds, Firestone Service will pivot; if one use's one's imagination, "the concept" could work, but it will take someone with vision and big bucks.
The One Big Beautiful Bill -- July 4, 2025
Locator: 48658OBBB.
Updates
July 6, 2025: Joe Biden's "green" ghost factories. Link here to Bloomberg via Yahoo. Battery factories across the country are closing down. Empty buildings = ghost factories.
July 6, 2025: the OBBB and solar energy. Link here. It's dead by the end of the year (2025).
Original Post
Who won? Link here.
Exhibit A: Lomborg links --
- insanity: Europe to spend $100 trillion + to get from "Zero Now" to "EU Net Zero By 2050" -- and results will be absolutely negligible;
- fact: there is no energy transition to renewables; renewables are simply becoming part of the overall energy mix.
I really don't care about this stuff any more but I still occasionally post it because:
- almost everyone enjoys schadenfreude;
- it's good for the archives
- it's something to do while waiting for the US equity markets to open -- in this case, three days
- it helps folks understand "winners and losers" in Trump's one big beautiful bill
But clearly I'm correct with regard to winners and losers in this case. See link at very top of page.
By the way, "spelling self-check" on my computer: "Lomborg 2" --" Lamborghini 2." LOL.
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Social Comments
Those That "Get It"
That one big beautiful bill: these are the comments that tell me that some people actually "get it." These comments are at this Yahoo!Fiance story. Link here.
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