Is the hydrogen economy really the future? Or Is it all a farce? I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but it’s…
Is the hydrogen economy really the future? Or Is it all a farce?
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Peter Zeihan
Transport: The Economics (and Politics) of Railroads
Today’s video comes to you from Needle’s Eye Tunnel on the Rollins Pass Railroad.
My walk along the railroad tracks inspired some pondering on why rail gets such a bad rap. Yeah, I know it’s not as fast as planes OR as versatile as vehicles OR as cheap as water…but that doesn’t mean there’s no place for it.
While rail might be the redheaded stepchild of the transport industry, it is still very much an integral part of the family.
What Happened to the Arms Control Treaties
If you’re looking for something to ponder over a glass (or two or three) of nice whiskey, you may want to save this newsletter and video for then…
Now that you’ve returned with your spirit of choice, we’ll be looking at the history of arms control treaties and today’s lack thereof.
What Makes Vietnam a Valuable US Ally?
Biden recently announced that he’d be making a trip to Vietnam, which will likely occur in September when he visits other regional powers. But what makes Vietnam such a valuable asset to have in the US portfolio of allies?
Is it because they’re a major regional power? Or because they have a better demographic profile than others in the region? Sure, that factors into it, but it really comes down to positioning and attitude.
Prigozhin Is Dead…But Who Did It?
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, has reportedly died in a plane crash. The question that comes to mind isn’t why this happened (because Prigozhin’s hands were plenty dirty), but who did it?
Making Life Hard for Chinese Tech
The Biden administration has issued its first wave of investment bans on the Chinese tech space – things like AI or tech with military applications. However, money isn’t the problem for the Chinese; the real kicker is losing access to American know-how.
The Chinese Slide Into Deflation
We saw deflation take over Japan in the 90s, and it took them nearly 25 years to pull themselves out of it. The Japanese situation was leaps and bounds better than China’s current situation, so if this data is even partially indicative of China’s economic future, we could be looking at the beginning of the end.
Why Should Northern China Worry About Flooding?
If you’re thinking, “There’s no way China’s situation could possibly get worse,” you may need to talk to mother nature about the rains and typhoons causing flooding in northern China.
To understand the problem, we need to rewind about 2500 years. The Chinese crop of choice was and still is rice (although corn and wheat would have been quite productive given the Yellow River’s sediment makeup and the region’s arid climate). To produce rice, you must precisely control when and how much water is introduced throughout the growth cycle
An Iran Deal We Can Live With
There’s finally a deal on the table between the US and Iran that everyone can live with…it even looks like Israel has given it the green light. So what does this deal actually look like?
On the surface, this deal looks like the US is getting back those American prisoners who were unjustly detained and releasing $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds. However, this isn’t just about a few people who got caught with dime bags; it’s about the broader relationship at hand.
Why Can’t We Trust the Media?
Propaganda only works when you have an uninformed society, and if you haven’t looked up in a while, we can’t even agree on what color the sky is anymore. So yeah, propaganda is doing just fine here in the States. But how did we get here?