Friday, April 3, 2026

Foreign Exchange Reserves -- Russia, Saudi Arabia, China -- Posted April 3, 2026

Locator: 50418STORAGE.

Locator: 50418STORAGE.

Locator: 50418STORAGE.

Foreign exchange reserves: Russia, Saudi Arabia, China.

Russia, link here: posted March 16, 2026: 

Saudi, link here: posted April 3, 2026:

China, link here, posted March 16, 2026: 

Trump's Defense Budget Submitted -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50417BUDGET.

Defense budget.  

Link here

 And this is just the part we see. We don't see the classified portion of the submission. 


 Key:

Golden Pass LNG, Texas, Set To Load First Export Cargo Amid Record Feedgas Intake -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50416LNG.

Article at link was posted by Hart Energy on April 2, 2026.  

The LNG tanker HL Sea Eagle is expected to arrive at the Golden Pass export terminal in Texas on April 20 to load the plant’s first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export, according to a trading source and LSEG ship-tracking data.

******************************
The Book Page

Completed my notes on Volume 2, Norman Sherry's biography of Graham Greene. 

Link here

************************
Movie Night

Graham Greene's The Third Man. Perhaps one of the best movies ever. 

It seems like a movie in which Orson Welles would have written the screenplay, acted in, and directed. And, yet, only one of the three was true -- Orson Welles played Harry Lime in the movie, and that was it. And on-screen he had less than eleven minutes.

Excellent movie. 

On the other hand Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana was a big disappointment. It was completely miscast. The lead needed to be played by Peter Sellers, had the latter been ten years older. Alec Guiness was either too old (possibly) or completely misread the play (hard to believe). The director of both movies: Carol Reed. The movie's premise (and the book's premise, of course) was brilliant, and based on factual events.

JPMorgan Talks Head Count -- Texas Vs Manhattan -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50415JPM.

Link here

  • Manhattan: 26,000. Down from 35,000 when Jamie Dimon arrived at JPMorgan.
  • Texas: 33,000. Up from 11,000 where the headcount started in Texas under Jamie Dimon. 

Was Jamie Dimon the first JM CEO to have a JPM financial institution in Texas?

AI says "no," but technically he was, as far as I can see. It appears that prior to Jamie Dimon,  JPM's Texas investments were only due through mergers, acquisitions, but not by moving Manhattan resources to Texas.

Update: Onsite Power Plant For Microsoft's 2GW Data Center, Abilene, Texas -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50414LDCS.

Link here

The new center: 900 MW.

Total projected capacity: 2.1 GW.  

 ***************************************
Meanwhile, Galaxy's Helios

To clarify:

  • Galaxy is the company.
  • the stand-alone facility in Dickens County is Helios
  • HPC: high-performance computing

 

In same general area as Galaxy's Helio, Dickens County, TX. Dickens County is out in the middle of nowhere, just at the far southeast corner of the panhandle (actually just outside of the panhandle) of Texas.

This is a very, very interesting story, if I understand it correctly.  

It started out as a cryptomining center (think: lots of Nvidia GPUs and lots of electricity requirements). The company pivoted. to monetize their expertise on a much larger scale. They see themselves using the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) model to monetize blades, electricity, and their expertise. It appears their "oracle" will be CoreWeave.

I asked Google Gemini if my summary was accurate. Gemini's reply:

Links:

If successful, it appears that Helio / CoreWeave will have multiple LDCs in Texas. 

Car Sales Last Month -- Ford, Rivian -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50413AUTOSALES.

Rivian: link here.

Ford: link here

US Economy: Full Employment; Adding More Jobs Than Expected -- April 3, 2026

Locator: 50412ECONOMY.

Early morning bike ride.

$4.00 less expensive than coffee and croissant at Starbucks. 


I keep forgetting that I can order from the app at the table. I don't even have to enter a credit card number. No idea how they do it.

****************************
The Book Page

Graham Greene.