Globalise Puns

As the USA moves away from global politics and focuses on internal problems, would CANZUK follow them and take a more inward approach, or would it expand and globalise without the help of the US?

My speculation is that CANZUK may have to replace the US and take up the torch for a while, this could lead to expanded growth for the CANZUK nations with many recognising them as the third pillar of the west which would certainly help when Russia starts threatening Europe and China threatens Asia.

I watched a video from the youtuber Monsieur Z about a WW3 situation and he speculates The five eyes nations will only pay attention to the pacific and the EU will defend against Russia, but that wouldn’t be smart in case the UK is threatened by Russia’s advance into Europe which would ultimately threaten the densest populated state in CANZUK, as well as half the population of CANZUK. What do you all think?

As a recent convert to Boglehead-style passive investing who had accumulated a sizeable portfolio of US assets (both ETFs and individual stocks) in a previous life, would like to seek the advice of this community on what might be a good (and lazy) way to progressively "globalise" my portfolio towards a tilt AWAY from the US.

Some background assumptions:

1. Though I am severely overconcentrated on the US currently, I would rather not sell down any of my existing US holdings and am happy to pretend that they collectively equate to a US-only ETF.
2. I assume a balanced portfolio (no tilt) would be about 60% US:40% ROW.
3. I am DM (ex-US) neutral, EM positive and would like to be underweight US eventually (say 45% US:55% ROW)
4. I (technically, we) would be making purchases using an IBKR LLC joint account (with tenancy by the entirety) so believe the US estate duty consideration should not apply.

With the above in mind, I am mulling the following options:

(1) Add VXUS (Vanguard, TER: 0.08%), a global ex-US Vanguard ETF, until parity. Would have liked to consider a comparable Irish UCITS ETF for this role but wasn't able to find one. (Does anyone know of one??) This would be the laziest way forward and has the advantage of allowing me to go beyond parity and overweight ROW (and by extension, EM) with one instrument. Thereafter, titrate with VTI (Vanguard, TER: 0.03%) to maintain the desired balance between US and ROW. But not sure how much I should discount this option due to the higher withholding taxes incurred by US domiciled funds.

(2) Add EFA (iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, TER: 0.32%) and EIMI (iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF, TER: 0.18%) until parity and titrate with CSPX (iShares Core S&P500 UCITS ETF, TER: 0.07%) thereafter. The downsides here seem to be that this is exceedingly expensive (EFA is US domiciled as well, besides having a higher TER than VXUS-again, I wasn't able to find a comparable Irish UCITS ETF), more complexity (two instruments involved), and unintentionally excludes Canada in the rebalancing exercise.

(3) Forgo DM ex-US and go EIMI all the way to "parity" (essentially EM becomes ROW) and titrate thereafter with ISAC (iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF, TER: 0.2%) or VWRA (FTSE All-World UCITS ETF, TER: 0.22%). But I'm not so DM negative or that EM positive or sure that the WHT cost advantages that come from favouring Irish UCITS funds outweighs a VXUS+VTI (or hybrid VXUS+CSPX) solution set.

I c

https://www.dropbox.com/s/onvrila2zzmxiz1/20210219%20Zucoins%20%5BMedia%20Release%20%28Mate%20Tokay%20Appointed%20Advisor%29%5D.pdf?dl=0

Hey guys, i have a fully operational base running and im planning on going huge. My aim is a semi-UPS friendly 12k science/min or 200 science/sec base. Doing some initial math with basic resources, i've run into a snag. That snag is called logistics.

12k science a minute i require about 22k copper wires per second. That equals to about 70 train wagons being filled non-stop. Running a 2 train/10 wagon setup i have about a 55% efficiency on my wagon loading meaning i would need about 140 wagon and thus 14 12-long trains. These 14 trains would fulfill all copper wire needs for the entire factory.

I would also need to supply them with copper plates, about 7k/sec which in turn equals to about 22 wagons loading non-stop. again with 55% loading efficiency thats 39 wagons or 4 12-long trains.

If i add those up, i get about 18 huge trains clogging up my railroad network. Keep in mind, this is only copper wires, nothing else. No green/red/blue circuits or anything.

EDIT: those 18 trains are the minimal number, not counting trains in transit. it takes about 7 secs to load/unload a wagon. 7 seconds to load and about 4 secxonds to leave the station thus 1 train every 11 seconds per station. Assuming a round trip of 1 minute, you should actually multiply the 14 rains by 5, thus 70ish for wires and 10-ish for copper ore for a total of about 8 12-long trains just to get copper wires sorted.

Now if i localise everything, i would only have to transport about 5k copper ore and about 11k iron ore per second (also some oil and water, but those numbers are extremely small in comparison). Those 16k ore/sec equal about 50 wagons being loaded non-stop or again with the 55% efficiency that means i would need 90-ish wagons for ore or 9 trains. I would also need 1 train per science type making it 16 trains. This would be ALL the production requirements. I would deliver ore, smelt and process it on location.

Localising production would seem to give less stress on my train network, thus avoiding train jams.

So my question for all you mega base builders is this: why go for globalised production? I've seen people posting screenshots with huge green circuit productions but i dont see a reason why to make something like that if youre going really big.

I remember that for the last ten years, everyday products had been getting faster, better, and cheaper, at least for most people across the globe.

These days, at least before the pandemic, I can order something over the Internet, almost anything, and it could be sent to me home doorstep within a week, compared to when i had to trawl through department stores or ask around.

Of course, I still remember the era before the 2000s, while I was not in a western country, it was not all that bad, but the biggest stuff was the lack of easy access to info and how I had to get my knowledge from the library.

Most countries have lathes and machining tools but the list of countries that can make products like jet engines and computer chips are a lot smaller than I realised, after I did some research.

Hi everyone.

I will be going on Erasmus to Maastricht at the end of January until June. I will be following the courses Comparative Company Law, Comparative Corporate Governance, International Commercial Law, and Corporate Social Responsibility. I have some questions/concerns.

1. I've heard that exams immediately follow up to the lectures. However, I am used to having at least one week without classes to study for exams. How many free days can I expect in order to prepare for an exam? How much content will I have to learn for the exam? I am used to studying summaries/lecture notes of at least 150 pages.

2. Are the courses I have chosen feasible or are they known as courses that many students fail? What are the assessment methods? According to the website of UM, I would have only one written exam, and the others are final papers/take home exams. However, in 2018, this was not the case according to a peer that also went on Erasmus. I want to make sure that the website of UM does not mislead me or anything, and I do end up having several written exams.

3. How feasible is it to write a thesis on top of your lectures?

4. How many times a week will I have classes? The calendar of the semester are not yet available, so I have no idea, and it is stressing me out, because I cannot assess how much work I will have.

I don't really care about being able to party and stuff. My main worry is that I have to submit my thesis at my home university in the beginning of May, and right now, I don't know whether that will happen, given the system at UM of having two exam periods in one semester and the PBL-method.

Thank you!!