Though my past 10 weeks were quite travel intensive, I probably still didn’t miss that many great Zero Hedge articles :). Here are my favorite ones (and some more, in particular also from Bloomberg New Energy Finance).
Geopolitics
- PetroYuan Futures Open – Over 10 BillIon Notional Trades In First Hour
- In Unprecedented Move, China Plans To Pay For Oil Imports With Yuan Instead Of Dollars
- Here Are China’s Five Options For “Nuclear” Trade War
- Why China’s Soybean Tariff Changed Everything
- China Declares Trade War Victory: Gloats At US “Suffering” After “Crushing Counterattack”
- In 2002, President Bush Imposed 30% Steel Tariffs; This Is What Happened Next
- Trump Asked Saudi King For $4 Billion So US Troops Can Leave Syria
- 1986 CIA Document Analyzes Possibilities Of “Regime Change” In Syria
- Watch: Former Head Of British Armed Forces In Iraq Tells Truth About Syria, Is Cut Off By Sky News
- [must read] “The Syria Campaign”-Redux: Inside The Shadowy PR Firm That’s Lobbying For Regime-Change In Syria [Again: “Realize that everything connects to everything else – Leonardo da Vinci”, excellent article straight out of a James Bond plot hinting at the interwovenness between politics, journalism, finance and activism]
- Saudi Arabia Would Send Troops To Syria As Part Of “Islamic Coalition”
- Famed War Reporter Robert Fisk Reaches Syrian ‘Chemical Attack’ Site, Concludes “They Were Not Gassed”
- Russian “Troll Farm” Indictment Shredded By Journalist Who First Profiled It In 2015
- Council On Foreign Relations President: “Goodbye, LIberal World Order”
- Trump Becomes America’s Top Arms Dealer In Quest To Boost US Weapons Sales
- “Big Progress” – North Korea To Halt Nuclear, ICBM Tests; Dismantle Test Site; Pursue Peace
Energy
- Liebreich: Beyond Three Thirds, The Road to Deep Decarbonization | Bloomberg New Energy Finance [Fascinating and inspiring report on current energy tech!]
- Clean Energy’s Year of Trumping Dangerously | Bloomberg New Energy Finance
- Solar-Plus-Storage Systems Are ‘Match Made in Heaven’: Q&A | Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Cryptocurrencies & Blockchain
- BIS Chief Fears “Systemic Threat” Of Bitcoin, Urges “Pre-emptive Action” From Authorities [though the pre-emptive strike did not happen at the last finance G20 meeting, cyrptos are now also black-listed in India, add more red to the map below]
- Meet The ‘Man’ Who Crashed Bitcoin In 2018
- Sierra Leone Holds World’s First “Free And Fair” Blockchain-Backed Election
Technology
- Obama’s Former Campaign Director Makes Bombshell Claim: Facebook Was “On Our Side” [Aaaah, those evil all mighty Russian hackers… Oh wait?]
- Cambridge Analytica CEO Caught On Camera Offering Bribes And Sex Workers To Entrap Political Opponents
- Israeli Firm Can Now Hack Into Virtually Any Cellphone, Tablet
- Barclays Summarizes 89-Page Tesla-Bashing Report To 5 Tweets For Dumb Americans And Tech Investors
- More Hilarious Facts About Tesla From A Hedge Fund Shorting The Stock
Summary of recent Tesla bad news:
The tally of bad press, lawsuits and investigations of recent relating to Tesla is starting to pile up.
- NTSB investigation that put the company at a public feud with the NTSB
- An initial workplace safety investigation by the state of California
- A second reported workplace safety investigation, reported on Friday
- A securities fraud class action lawsuit against Musk claiming he knew he was going to miss Model 3 targets for 2017
- This contract worker lawsuit
- CNBC article detailing poor vetting of suppliers, leading to a pile up of malfunctioned parts
- Reports of the company cutting corners as it relates to their pre-owned vehicles
- Reveal article alleging the company is underreporting its safety incidents at its Fremont factory
- Recent massive recall of 125k Model S sedans
Despite this, we’ve been promised by Elon himself that Tesla:
- Will be cash flow positive in Q3 and Q4 of this year
- Will not need to do another capital raise in 2018
- Will produce 6,000 Model 3’s per week, starting this summer
Critics of the company believe that Elon Musk should be a target by the SEC if these goals – once again, easy to promise, not as easy to deliver – aren’t met. They have been the only thing that has kept Tesla’s stock price from falling well below the $300 mark over the last couple of weeks, despite all of the negative press. This new lawsuit is just another negative to add to that pile.
- Tesla Compared To Enron, Ponzi Scheme In Scathing New Research Report [Bonus old report]
- Tesla’s New Competition – YouTube
- Dialog Semi Crashes Most In 16 Years As Apple “Black Swan Moment” Strikes Again
- Great News From McKinsey: Robots Will Take 800 Million Jobs Worldwide By 2030 [older article]
- Big Brother Arrives: China Bans People With “Bad Social Credit” From Planes, Trains
- China Deploys “SkyNet” Facial Recognition, Can Compare 3 Billion Faces Per Second
Politics
- Contradictions In Seth Rich Murder Continue To Challenge Hacking Narrative
- Assange Lashes Out: “Hypocritical Motherf*ckers… Remember How I Exposed Your Secret Deal With The Saudis” [Quote of the day: “And that is exactly why you have detained me without charge for eight years in violation of two UN rulings and spent over 20 million pounds spying on me you hypocritical mother fuckers. Your entire international human rights programme is £10.6m you pathetic frauds.”]
Economics
- Devonshire: True Inflation Is Three Times Higher Than Officially Reported [A little sceptic about the final number, but still, the article explains well the magnitude of the impact the inflation number has on about everything.]
- Venezuelans Are Paying Black-Market Dealers A 100% Markup For Worthless Paper Bills [or how to run out of cash during hyperinflation…]
- Venezuela’s 4,000% Hyperinflation ‘Breaks’ Cash-Weighing Scales
- South Africa’s Brand New President Wants To Confiscate Land From White Farmers [What could possibly go wrong?]
Finance
- [must read] This Is How Easy It Is To Manipulate The Entire Stock Market [I was about to write exactly that article, but ZH beat me to it! More about the VIX in my previous post, more coming soon]
- Regulators Open Probe After Whistleblower Exposes “Rampant Manipulation Of VIX”
- China Shuts Down Its VIX To Halt Market Turbulence
- Don’t Expect A Central Bank Bailout This Time, ECB’s Nowotny Warns
- It’s Not A “Conspiracy Theory”: Here’s How Central Banks Actively Suppress The Price Of Gold
- The BOJ Goes On A Record ETF Buying Spree To Prevent A Market Rout
- [absolute must read] An Unexpected Warning From Goldman Sachs: “Markets Themselves” Will Cause The Next Crash [And an old classic ZH article that explained all that almost 10 years ago…]
- US National Debt Hits $21 Trillion [Bonus chart about the distribution of the US debt by maturity below]
- US Launching Crisis Level Spending
- IMF Sounds The Alarm On Global Debt, Warns “United States Stands Out”
- Florida Teachers’ Pension Fund Is Long AR-15 Gunmaker Stock
- “Day Of Reckoning” Nears As Goldman Projects A Record $650BN In Stock Buybacks
- How Wall Street Banks “Masked” A Record $350 Billion In Subprime Exposure [the art of shuffling and shifting exposure… luckily $350 billion is chump change by now.]
- How Many Trillions In Debt Are Linked To Soaring LIBOR?
Culture
- How to Grow Up and Be More Mature | Mark Manson [40 minute read, but great summary of Mark Manson’s recent work!]
- #FreeInterrail: Europe’s Next Erasmus Moment! | ZEIT ONLINE
Ted Talks
- [must watch] Jaron Lanier: How we need to remake the internet
Gordon Schücker 