Absolutely incredible long profile of MBS, Saudi Arabia’s de facto king. He’s like Kim Jong Un, but much richer, and actually driving significant change. Significant to whom, is the question
MBS rebuked me when I called this attitude “moderate Islam,” though his own government champions the concept on its websites. “That term would make terrorists and extremists happy.” It suggests that “we in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries are changing Islam into something new, which is not true,” he said. “We are going back to the core, back to pure Islam” as practiced by Muhammad and his four successors. “These teachings of the Prophet and the four caliphs—they were amazing. They were perfect.”
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A great newsletter on global affairs through the lens of finance and macroeconomics. Adam Tooze’s output is astounding.
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-174-finance-and-the-polycrisis
The effect of US financial shocks on really large economies like China is relatively muted. So too for France and, surprisingly, the UK. But Germany feels American shocks heavily, as heavily, indeed, as Canada and almost as heavily as Mexico.
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Another great newsletter, this one on all things China, through local (Mandarin Chinese) news sources.
https://sinocism.com/p/protests-covid-xis-diplomacy-national
Since the start of the pandemic China has had several waves of massive outpourings of online anger, especially around the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, the Shanghai lockdown disaster and the Guizhou bus tragedy. But that virtual anger about Covid policies and censorship, among other things, did not cross into real world protests. Until the last few days, as people gathered publicly to express their anger and frustration in Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and other cities, and at many college campuses around the country.
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More on Mr. Beast and his incredible business success. Willy Wonka self-promo + Walt Disney ambition. He doesn’t capture, he IS the zeitgeist
https://www.shopify.com/blog/mrbeast-business-backstory
In the earlier days of his channel, Jimmy would spend all day on Skype analyzing videos with other aspiring YouTubers. They called their group Daily Masterminds. From 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., they would break down the anatomy of each other’s videos, study popular YouTubers, and brainstorm ideas. Jimmy credits these group calls with helping him perfect his craft and intricately understand his audience.
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Gambling gray markets + regulatory arbitrage + people desperate for economic opportunity
https://restofworld.org/2022/cambodias-scam-mills/
Linh Ne came to Bavet in 2021 at 17 years old, she said, accepting a typist job through Facebook. To cross the border, she pushed through forested areas and waded through a ditch filled with waist-high water; only on arrival did she realize she’d been recruited to a scam company that emulated the shopping platform Tiki. Her employers asked her to defraud Vietnamese shoppers, and she said that when she refused, they starved her. She was sold after two weeks to a second company conducting a romance scam, where her boss gave her a guide to manipulate clients.
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A weekly newsletter with an insider’s view of crypto news
https://page1.substack.com/p/round-tripping-677
The same relative level of energy and emotion that occurs in bull markets, has to then be inversely mirrored in bear markets for finality to occur…perhaps crypto is slowly becoming contrarian again…there will be aftershocks in the market and likely some final contagion…crypto did not need a bailout here, bad actors failed and will be punished…we have no doubt a recomposition will occur and narratives will shift again in time…’this too shall pass
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Semiconductors = the oil of the metaverse
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/2020-most-traded-global-good-was-not-crude-oil-semiconductors
Since 2015, semiconductors have taken the top rank for the most traded good, representing 15% of total global goods trade
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I read this once every few months. I love articles that completely change your view on a topic you *thought* you understood. If you want to *actually* understand proof of work, this is a must read
https://grisha.org/blog/2018/01/23/explaining-proof-of-work
And there is the crux of it: The difficulty in finding a conforming hash acts as a clock. A universal clock, if you will, because there is only one such clock in the universe, and thus there is nothing to sync and anyone can “look” at it. It doesn’t matter that this clock is imprecise. What matters is that it is the same clock for everyone and that the state of the chain can be tied unambiguously to the ticks of this clock.