Starcloud

A new company called Starcloud is using Space X rockets to put data centers in space. Musk is following up with his own version of date centers in space. These centers will not put stress on the grid, will not interfere with neighborhoods, will not use any water and will use solar panels for power. Once again Musk is on the leading edge of new ideas. Starcloud officially launched what is recognized as the first high-performance, AI-capable data center to space in November 2025. The 60-kilogram, refrigerator-sized satellite, named Starcloud-1, carries an NVIDIA H100 GPU to provide orbital data processing for earth observation and AI training.

Venezuela

Venezuela is another example of how Trump sees the world vs other US presidents. In the past, when the US wanted to help or influence other countries, money was sent. This was the case with some Central American countries to help stem the tide of immigrants. Instead of sending money to Venezuela, Trump is selling their oil for them and then using the proceeds to pay for basic services like police protection, teachers salaries and healthcare. The US is overseeing the disbursement of these funds to minimize corruption. The first $500 million in oil sale was put in a Qatari bank to protect it from creditors and returned to Venezuela. The transactions are overseen by Secretary of State Rubio and the payments are subject to a retroactive audit to ensure the funds are used as intended. This is more difficult than just sending money and may not work but it is trying a different approach.

Greenland

Now that the excitement over Greenland has subsided, what happened. The US updated the 1951 Pact giving the US military wide access to the island. Total access with no time limits. Creates pockets of American soil on the island. Sets up radar for the Golden Dome. Secures access to mineral wealth including rare earths, gold, copper and zinc. Restricts non-NATO countries (China and Russia) from obtaining mining rights or establishing basis on the island. Sets up a NATO mission called Arctic Sentry intended to counter Russian or Chinese influences in the region. Reinforces US and NATO control of the Greenland-Iceland- UK maritime passage to defend North America from naval threats.

Retirement

Social security acts like an immediate annuity in that it pays a set amount for life. The average benefit at age 62 is $1,360 per month and the life expectancy at that age is 21 years so you will collect $343,000. If you wait until age 70 you will collect $2,410 per month for 15 years or $433,000. If you invested your $1,360 per month at age 62 for 8 years at 3% over 8 years you would have $147,000 It is recommended that retirees not have the bulk of their money in stocks. One way to do that and minimize risk is to take social security at age 62 and set up a stock investment account where the money is automatically deposited each month. This is for people who have enough income besides social security to live on. One other consideration is taxes. Sometimes people are better off postponing SS for tax purposes using up assets before age 70 before starting SS.

Millionaire

A person age 62 retiring today who started working at age 20 some 42 years ago could be a millionaire today based on three factors. Over those years the medium annual income increased from $6,249 to $63,180 or 5.7% per year. During this time the stock market increase an average of 10.6% each year. If the average worker had invested 10% of his earning over these 42 years, he would have $5,151,672. The three factors are that wages increased by 5.7%, the market earned 10.6% and he saved 10%.

Wind power

There are 94 nuclear power plants operating in the USA and they produce slightly more than one gigawatt (GW). For years the demand for electric power has been holding steady but with the reshoring of manufacturing plants, along with the buildout of data centers, the demand is once again rising and will continue at an accelerated rate into the future. Most heavy industries, including data centers, need power 24/7 and wind and solar cannot meet that need. If wind and solar are used it requires a fossil fuel or nuclear plant on standby, for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Just as industry is coming around to the fact that the country is not ready for electric vehicles, they are now realizing that wind and solar cannot replace fossil fuels but nuclear can. Instead of building one GW nuke plant, the future will be small units manufactured on assembly lines and sent by truck to the use point. As the need for power increases more units will be added. This eliminates the need for long transmission lines and provides power 24/7. One GW of small nuke power units takes up 100 acres while a one GW wind farm takes up 100,000 acres. Windmills use rare earth metals (REE) neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium which when mined create environmental hazards. Small nuke reactors do not need rare REE’s. The waste products from nuke reactors are stored on site and take up a small area. Used windmill blades take up .02 acres per blade and 8,000 blades are retired annually in the US using up 160 acres. The same situation exists with solar panels.

California

California collects $100 billion in individual state income tax and the 204 billionaires that live there pay $23 billion of the $100 billion. Corporations pay another $28 billion. The bottom 50% of workers pay no income tax. California is proposing a billionaire’s tax that will bring in another one billion per year. California’s plan to grow the economy is to provide $600 million to various industry groups to expand. This could be done by lowering the corporate income tax but that would remove the state from control.