After a series of high-flying mishaps, Boeing chief David Calhoun, was shown the door panel in a management shake-up of the troubled airline. Former Crypto-king and live-action MuppetSam Brinkman-Fried, was convicted of seven counts of fraud for his roll the collapse of FTX. Bitcoin, it seems, has managed just fine without him. SBF will be sentenced today.
The valuation of Antropic, an AI start-up to rival ChatGPT, has hit $18bn. After Amazon said it would invest another $2.75bn in the company on top of the $1.25bn announced last year. It’s not a complete take-over, but Amazon is already facing scrutiny over what may or may not be a monopoly.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Google was fined $272mm for violating a licensing deal with French media outlets for displaying content on its platforms. France’s competition regulator slapped Google with a fine nearly twice that, for the same reason in 2021. This week, EU regulators have focused on Apple and Meta for anti-competition violations.
Oil futures made gains in Asian trading overnight. In an attempt to keep prices higher, Moscow ordered Russian production cuts. The Ukraine, meanwhile, helped out by wrecking refining facilities near the Black Sea, further choking production. Brent futures were up, slightly, at $86.89/bbl. While oil is ticking up, OPEC+'s ability to dominate pricing is being undercut by expanding output in the US and Canada.
Argentina’s “anarcho-capitalist” president Javier Milei got a bump from the countries consumer confidence numbers released yesterday. The number has edged up through most of his 100 days in office. The government has achieved a monthly fiscal surplus and inflation is down to 13% annually. That’s still awful, but down from 211.4% when the man took office. This should help Milei push another raft of reforms through a skeptical congress. This matters simply because a few large, stable economic anchors in Latin America will do more for the US border crisis than any wall will.
Speaking of a wall… Truth Social shares surges 60% on the starting bell, but settled up around 16% on its first day of trading – putting its valuation at a bewildering $8bn.
China’s President Xi is hosting 20 US business leaders -from companies like Blackstone and Qualcomm, a chips manufacturer, in an attempt to staunch the massive outflow of foreign investment. Europe is heading for the door as well, but let’s face it, its US money and stuff that he’s after. He’s trying to sell the idea that the raft of new government regulation international business – or constant party interference – isn’t happening.
Tall Pour: On some level, Beijing seems to know that it has painted itself into a corner – it scrapped retaliatory tariffs on several Australian goods like barley, timber, coal and wine – which had been slapped with 116-218% duties after Canberra questioned Beijing “undercooked bat” theory of covid in 2020. Meanwhile, India and the Philippines met in Manila to discuss cooperation in deterring China’s more expansionist policies – into India by land and the South China Sea. To this end India is sending the wonderfully named “Brahmos” supersonic anti-ship missiles to the Philippine navy. The two countries are part of a network that also includes Australia, Japan, the US and Vietnam.
Richard Murff is the founder of 4717 Insights. For more on the world, how it got here and a stiff drink, head to the 4717. Murff is the author of Pothole of the Gods: On Holy War, Fake News & other Ill-Advised Ideas, Drunk as Lords, and the upcoming Horrible Political Jokes in Ukraine. For a flight of insights delivered three times a week, please subscribe.