Lahiru Pathmalal

Lord of the bagel | Jazz | Art | Start-ups | Beer | Coffee | Banking | Former Takas mudalali ( co founder Director e Commerce Komar

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

https://t.co/nJKQma3vJO was acquired by @NalinWelgama through Ideal Industries. Takas outlasted all the competition to get to this point. The B2B buiss TES (ERP) will work as an independent entity under @kalinga
#ecommerce
@murtazamoosajee @RajanAnandan

[dart @poordart]

Uber has no cars.
Airbnb has no hotels.
Epstein's sex trafficking ring has no clients.

Welcome to the new economy

[NO CONTEXT HUMANS @HumansNoContext]

Man trying to catch his dog around two girls doing yoga

[Matara Sunil @Sunil_Matara]

ලoකාවේ මනුස්සයෙක් පවුල එක්ක තායිලන්තෙ ගිහින් හොටෙල් ස්ටාෆ් එකට බල්ලෙක් වගේ බුරනව

[Huawei @Huawei]

Can small and mid-sized cities hold the keys to a zero-carbon future? One Nobel Laureate believes so. Learn how citizens, cities, and insightful leaders can make strides in sustainability. Read more in #Huawei #Transform: https://t.co/GRwSBOOHTt #NetZeroCities #ThisIsHuawei

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Pope Francis was the rare leader who made us want to be better people. In his humility and his gestures at once simple and profound – embracing the sick, ministering to the homeless, washing the feet of young prisoners – he shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another.

Today, Michelle and I mourn with everyone around the world – Catholic and non-Catholic alike – who drew strength and inspiration from the Pope’s example. May we continue to heed his call to “never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope.”

[Ajith Fernando @n2addict]

Happy Easter to all those experts who calculated the trillions of losses the EPF made.

https://t.co/5pKsJnOqmC

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It is indeed "one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of Trump's presidency" in the sheer level of gaslighting at play: he's trying to make one of the biggest and clearest humiliations in US history look like a win.

But there's no amount of lipstick that can disguise this pig. What happened is remarkably similar to the 2022 Liz Truss fiasco in the UK: Trump came out with a remarkably foolish and terribly executed policy that created a market panic—including in the bonds market—and he had to walk it back.

But unlike the British system that—for better or worse—can get rid of woefully incompetent Prime Ministers (that is, more incompetent than the average), the U.S. is stuck with Trump.

And unlike Liz Truss, Trump remains insulated by a circle of sycophants like Lutnick who reframe humiliating capitulations as 'extraordinary' triumphs, and a voter base that interprets even his most flagrant policy failures as masterful 4D chess moves.

Fact is, even after this retreat, the U.S. is in a far worse position than it used to be.

Contrary to what Lutnick and Trump are saying, what this episode proved beyond doubt is that the world is NOT ready "to work with President Trump to fix global trade". In fact, besides Israel's Netanyahu, I haven't seen a single country on earth come out publicly to support Trump's plan.

Sure, a couple of weaker countries who are heavily dependent on trade have reluctantly come forward to find a way to mitigate the damage Trump would do to their economies but to conflate this with enthusiastic cooperation is pure fantasy.

What we're witnessing instead is damage control by nations caught in the crossfire of his insane economic policies. And you can be sure that the long-term strategy of these countries will now be to reduce dependencies and trading links to the U.S. in order to avoid being caught in a similar situation in the future.

More importantly, the countries that together make up about 50% of trade with the U.S.—namely Canada, the EU and China—have all announced retaliatory tariffs and measures, which a) means that Trump's claim that countries other than China "aren't retaliating in any way, shape, or form against the United States" is a complete lie and b) shows that his approach has accomplished the remarkable feat of uniting geopolitical rivals in opposition to him.

Which is undoubtedly why his new approach seems to be to single-handedly focus on China, with a retreat to the good old U.S. strategy of trying to get others to help them contain China.

This has zero chance of working either, for 2 main reasons.

The first one is that if Trump has demonstrated one thing in the past 3 months, it's that he's fundamentally unstable and unreliable, and so is the United States. His chaotic governance sends a clear message to the world: America's word means nothing beyond the next Truth Social post.

If the notion that a country would take the risk of putting all its eggs in the American basket was already delusional before his presidency; it is now beyond absurd. What he's done is transform America from a cornerstone of global trade into a risk factor that must be hedged against.

The second one is that the "deal" on the table for these countries is absolutely repugnant, from their standpoint.

I mean, think about it: the "deal" would presumably be for these nations to abandon or significantly reduce their economic relationship with China—their largest trading partner in many cases—in exchange for a trading relationship with the U.S. that is worse than it used to be, with 10% additional tariffs. In effect it's asking countries to sacrifice their economic sovereignty and strategic flexibility for a lesser punishment.

It's a lose-lose proposition that might play well on Truth Social, but will get you laughed out of the room in the world of international relations. Unless you're say a tiny country that has the misfortune of being too weak and dependent on the American market.

But even in this latter case, these countries might amuse Trump in the short-term but they'll undoubtedly put in place long-term strategies to de-hitch themselves from the US crazy train as fast as possible in the medium term.

So all in all, what we're looking at here is not a strategic masterstroke but the desperate flailing of an administration that didn't anticipate how markets and trading partners would respond to economic coercion.

Trump is "teaching the world a lesson" all right: he taught them that America is now the biggest threat they face for their prosperity and the result of this won't be to "work with him", but to hedge themselves as much as they can from the American madness he's unleashed.

History will remember this not as an "extraordinary" moment of American strength, but as the point when the world concluded that diversifying away from the American market was no longer just economically prudent but existentially necessary for their own economic security.

[Chaminda Dias @chami9539]

He may have foreseen his own death but I am certain he would have done anything to prevent the murder of his children.

4 deaths in 2 days all to scrub evidence?

Powerful people are clearly pertubed and this is the price being paid for the glacial pace of our justice system.

#SriLanka

[Mangala Karunaratne @mangkaru]

Had fun moderating a panel in AI and writing @gallelitfest with @yudhanjaya and @AdamRutherford participating. AGI may or may not come, but whatever makes humans human, will still set us all apart!

[NewsWire 🇱🇰 @NewsWireLK]

"I am a Member of Parliament. I will come in my vehicle," says MP Archchuna broadcasting his arrest live on social media

[Richardquest @richardquest]

When to sleep on a long flight?? Here’s my tip: time your sleep to the time of arrival!! I’ll show you…..

[Satyan Gajwani @satyan]

This @EconomicTimes Conversations exchange was prescient, 18 months later @RajanAnandan

[Ravish Naresh @ravishnaresh]

This hasn't aged well at all for Sam. @RajanAnandan 's hunch was right. Even the $10Mn number was right.

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

@RajanAnandan nailing it, also having the ability to see what is coming.

A lesson to everyone on what can be done on building on others success. Nothing is impossible

[Ravish Naresh @ravishnaresh]

This hasn't aged well at all for Sam. @RajanAnandan 's hunch was right. Even the $10Mn number was right.

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

@RajanAnandan seeing what is coming here in terms of what is possible by building on top of what has been accomplished.

Brilliant, lesson to everyone

[Ravish Naresh @ravishnaresh]

This hasn't aged well at all for Sam. @RajanAnandan 's hunch was right. Even the $10Mn number was right.

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

One minute, they were celebrating Gaza’s ceasefire. The next, they were killed

Check out this article: https://t.co/EMeSt9vQG2

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

Incredible decision making. Can’t wait to see how this plays out with the 2 million tourist who visit the island.. or anyone who brings a phone from outside Lanka

#sosrilanka #lobby #softlogic #dialog #UsualSuspects

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.

All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.

[Lahiru Pathmalal @pathmalal]

Wolfgang Stange, 1947-2024: Choreographer, Founder and Director of Amici Dance Theatre Company

https://t.co/eMjz7CKWha

[Dhananath Fernando @dhananath]

🇱🇰 Congratulations to the “One Team”! Fun fact: Since 1955, every time Sri Lanka has achieved a primary surplus, @deshald has played a key role at the Finance Ministry.

Jokingly, if we ever return to the IMF, their first pre condition might be in bold: “Bring back Deshal”!