Most modern weapon systems require rare earths to manufacture, including expendables like missiles and drones. Rare earths are less mined than they are refined, and China controls over 90% of the refining capability. Rare earths are generally found in small amounts in other ores. For example, Gallium in Aluminum. To get Gallium, you have to […]
End of American Empire
So, the Dutch seized a Chinese owned semiconductor company: The Dutch government seizes control over Nexperia, one of Europe’s biggest chipmaker, owned by China. Nexperia’s Chinese operations pose a “threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities.” – 🇳🇱 Gov. pic.twitter.com/0PXmFIVvKp — NXT EU (@NXT4EU) October […]
A couple days ago I discussed the Dutch taking over Nexperia, a Chinese owned but Dutch domiciled company making commodity semiconductors. The company became Chinese owned because it was almost bankrupt, the Chinese bought it, fixed it and kept many jobs in Europe, including the headquarters. What I didn’t know about the story on Monday […]
John Maynard Keynes believed that ideas, hospitality, travel, knowledge and science should move freely between nations. if a country could reasonably produce something physical it needed, it should. Trade should exist, but be kept to a minimum. I’d like to highlight something Matt Stoller (the anti-trust guy) recently wrote: In May of 2020, the Chinese […]
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Stumbled across this recently: China aims to become custodian of foreign sovereign gold reserves to strengthen its standing in the global bullion market, according to people familiar with the matter. The People’s Bank of China is using the Shanghai Gold Exchange to court central banks in friendly countries to buy bullion and store it within […]
You may have heard that Tesla’s board has proposed giving Elon Musk a one trillion dollar payday. Tesla is falling apart, and the ostensible theory is that only Musk can save it, as if he’s not the guy who ran it into the ground with his bad decision making. Elon, of course, is currently “the […]
First, I want to follow up on this: “I am due to have a conversation with a friend that lives in Denmark tomorrow and I’m going to ask him about energy prices.” His reply, and I paraphrase as I did not record it or take notes: “if we still had to make our house payment, […]
It should be that almost always they do what they promise, and they meet their goals. An American-Chinese silicon valley type spent some time in China recently (I don’t agree wit the whole article, but you should read it), and among the bits that stood out to me was this: In the US, when politicians […]
Some years ago I wrote an article about how to run a real left wing government. Seven Rules for running a real left-wing government Of course, it was really a guide for how to change the ruling ideology of a society. Because, yes, elites, apparatchniks and what as might be called a deep state state […]