RobΞrt Bach

The interesting pattern created by the tangent lines to sine function [source: bit.ly/2uU2jd7]

A clue to what makes countries rich. And this is on a log scale.

Perhaps the most important question in the climate change debate: How do we make it in China's economic self-interest to decarbonize? The best answer we have is accelerating innovation in clean energy technologies to bring down costs faster.

3 weeks to go until I can ask Moritz Kreppel (@urbansportsclub) and Holger Seim (@blinkist) questions on stage! Very much looking frwd to this! Great event dedicated to innovation and sharing in the logistics and startup community. 🙌🏼 @BVLoffice bvl-digital.de/logtechfestiva…

What do they got? A big team, lots of money, a strong brand, seemingly unlimited resources, panache, reputation, all that. They’re established. They’re your competitors. You want to look away, but you see them everywhere. Their ads on your social, their name in the media, your dream clients on their website. But you know what else they got? Bigger company bloat. Overflowing obligations. Narratives to uphold. Appearances to maintain. Entitlement. Too much overhead. They’re slow. They’re conservative. They talk too much. They’ve stopped taking risks. They’re resting on their laurels, gliding on their reputation. They’re on defense. What they’ve really got is a lot to lose. What do you got? Hunger. Drive. Grit. Scrappiness. Independence. You’re on offense. You don’t have enough, which is why you’re dangerous. You have no choice but to be clever and creative. To make up for what you don’t have with something they can’t have: The underdog spirit. You can move. You can adjust. You can adapt. You can get it done while they’re still stuck deciding what to do. Small is not a stepping stone. Small is not less than. It’s greater than. It’s faster than. It’s better than. Savor your position. You don’t get to be the underdog forever. The baton will be passed. But for now, it’s your magic wand. Use it. We stand with the underdogs.

There is an excellent hackathon [for ladies 💪🏼] in #Bremen coming up! Expect many real-life challenges and inspiring encounters. Please spread the word! This is a great opportunity to discover new friends, jobs, and companies. dock.one/hack4ladies/ @1DockOne

Just as in 2008, the bankers lied. This time, the central bankers, the banks, and the bank regulators have lied to all dollar holders and depositors. This isn't your typical fractional reserve situation. The problem is that there isn't enough in the banks on a mark-to-market basis to cover withdrawals. They knew this through all of last year, and communicated it internally in their coded language. It's obvious from the graphs (see below). The central banks, the banks, and the banking regulators all knew a huge crash was coming — the phrase is "unrealized losses" [1,2,3,4,5]. But they never notified you, the depositor. Instead the regulators allowed banks to hide their literal insolvency in footnotes[6], until one guy figured it out[7]. It's Uncle Sam Bankman Fried. Just like SBF used your deposits to buy shitcoins, using accounting tricks to fool himself and others into using the money, so too did the banks. They all used the deposits to buy the ultimate shitcoin: long-dated US Treasuries. And they all got rekt at the same time, in the same way, because they bought the same asset from the same vendor who devalued it at the same time: the Fed. Specifically, as NYT admitted, banks "binged" on enormous amounts of Treasuries and other long-term bonds in 2021 when the flood of printed money cut off their typical demand for loans, and because they thought the Fed would keep interest rates low forever.[8]. And they had good reason to believe this. Powell said he'd be "patient" on rate hikes as late as Nov 3 2021[9]. Then he got renominated on Nov 22 2021[10], and hiked rates much faster than anyone had expected — which even Yellen[11] and the FDIC[12] admit caused the current banking crisis. Why did Powell delay? Probably for political reasons. Presidents don't like rate hikes[13], especially running into the election year of 2022. And Powell thought he could wait and just be like Paul Volcker[14], who was "firm" and then defeated inflation. But the world isn't an 80s rerun. Hiking from ten years of near zero interest rates in the 2010s was a surprise attack on every dollar holder. Economics isn't politics - the kind of insane flipflops you see in politics don't work when there are actual contracts involved. So anyone who bet on long-term Treasuries got killed in 2021. And now, anyone who bets on short-term Treasuries is going to get killed in 2023. The absolute worse place you can be is to have large amounts of assets locked up in three month treasury bills. The ~5% interest rate offered by big banks (G-SIBs) is a trap. Most fiat bank accounts are now a trap, for those countries whose central bankers followed the Fed. Check my references, I've provided quite a few. If you trust US bankers and US media, ignore me. Otherwise buy Bitcoin and get your coins off exchanges. #Bitsignal [1]: Fed, Sept 22: archive.is/1QA4q [2]: FDIC Nov 22: archive.is/ZBvli [3]: FDIC Mar 6 23: #selection-2051.175-2051.280" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">archive.is/yxd1u#selectio… [4]: Fed Feb 1 23: #selection-5639.361-5639.378" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">archive.is/nGpgk#selectio… [5]: Bank CPAs, April 22: #selection-2135.75-2135.152" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">t.co/OlEnfFqb1N [6]: Insolvency in a footnote: #selection-811.0-811.40" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">archive.is/0Jww3#selectio… [7]: Discovered online: archive.is/tfYIc [8]: Banks bingeing on bonds, but not because they want to Aug 25 2021: archive.is/CtW1B

So much looking forward to meeting old and new friends next week! And to the content! @beamberlin #startups #saas #logistics #bvl #berlin eventbrite.de/e/re-imagining…

Jetpacks are now real. twitter.com/mmm_machiavell…

Congratulations to our friends at @AirsidersHQ for cooperating with @dusairport to roll out their virtual interlining solution! We are so much looking forward to trying it in Düsseldorf! #airports #traveltech airportzentrale.de/flughafen-dues…

fantastic news! what a historic day. human ingenuity at work! inventing and building towards a better future. congrats to all of the hundreds that were highly involved 🥳 #EthereumMerge #ETHMerge

The state can confiscate your money, Twitter can confiscate your username, YouTube can confiscate your revenue, and tech companies can lock you out of your digital life. At the press of a key. That’s not the right balance of power. BTC/web3 shifts leverage back to individuals.

Some assume that economic growth is inherently at odds with saving the planet. Actually it's closer to the other way round. Economic growth often takes the form of new technology, and new technology usually does less damage to the environment.

Thank you, @VDMAonline, for this precise presentation of company building between @BEUMERGroup and us! These are our startups to date: beamberlin.com/logistics-star… #startup #logistics #building

Sth. we can all do. Easy, small steps: A European study showed that if one in five urban residents switched from #driving to #cycling for just one trip per day, it would cut #emissions from all car travel in Europe by about 8 percent. usa.streetsblog.org/2022/06/03/stu…

Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services.

About climate change and the overall set of priorities: I always wonder how the US does it. How can you produce so much emissions (and household waste BTW) per person? Also, I bet this figure doesn't include emissions by the US military, the single largest emitter on the planet.

Hopefully, it is now extremely obvious that Europe should restart dormant nuclear power stations and increase power output of existing ones. This is *critical* to national and international security.

"The direction of human history" by @harari_yuval in @TheEconomist is a superb article on what’s at stake in #Ukraine for humanity. I hope #Germany puts its economy 2nd and acts more decisively. Worried about #Taiwan being next

Congratulations to @countercheckcom for winning the PIP Startup Innovation Award 2021 - for the 'eCommerce, Retail & Cross-Boarder" category! #ParcelPostEXPO