Christoph Brughmans

What’s bad for Japan is bad for the US - Japan is the biggest foreign holder of US Treasuries - Has one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios at ~250% Japan can’t afford higher interest rates, so they have to sell US Treasuries to fund domestic needs

America Is Trapped In This War — And There Is No Way Out (Professor Jiang Analysis)

Peter Lynch: "People are very careful — they spend hours to get $50 off an airplane flight. They look at everything. And [then] they'll put $10,000 in some crazy stock they heard about on the bus."

THE YOUNGEST GRAND PRIX POLESITTER IN F1 HISTORY! 🌟

RT @opinion: These oil pipelines could decide the Iran War. @JavierBlas explains why 🎥

If the war is “very complete”, what then has happened to “unconditional surrender”? Are we beginning to see a new TACO trade because Iran has successfully weaponized the oil price? Was this always only about decimating Iran’s military capacity, to then leave the regime intact to do what it has done since June of last year? As in, rebuild, rearm, and relaunch. Please don’t tell me this was all for naught because of the polls – the same polls that showed 80% of Americans opposing U.S. entry into WWII until it was too late in 1941. Because we can then kiss goodbye to a brighter future of a terror-free and more peaceful world, as well as the Abraham Accords and all the prosperity that would come with them.

BREAKING: Step #7 of our “Conflict Playbook” appears to be near as President Trump signals a potential end to the Iran war. Oil prices are now down -30% in 16 hours.

the stock market is the only place where the smartest and dumbest people in the world willingly spend time together

JUST IN: The MarineTraffic timelapse tells one story. The reality tells another. On screen, the Strait of Hormuz has gone dark. Traffic collapsed 80 to 95% from a normal 40 to 60 tankers per day to single digits. The timelapse shows a waterway that carried 20% of global oil supply reduced to a near-empty corridor. Brent surged past $119 on the visual evidence of a chokepoint shutdown. But the Strait is not empty. It is invisible. Ships are crossing. They turn off their AIS transponders before entry, transit in darkness, and reactivate on the other side. Others spoof their identity entirely: broadcasting fake vessel names, false positions, or “CHINA OWNER” on their Automatic Identification System to exploit Iran’s selective exemption for Chinese-linked vessels. The bulk carriers Iron Maiden and Sino Ocean transited by claiming Chinese status. The sanctioned tanker Danuta I went completely dark, vanished from every tracking platform, and reappeared days later inside the Gulf. The Strait is not closed. It is operating in a shadow state where the only vessels moving are those willing to become invisible to do so. This is worse than closure for the insurance market. And here is why. War-risk actuaries price coverage using AIS-derived data: vessel positions, transit frequency, incident density per nautical mile. When 80 to 95% of traffic disappears from AIS, the models do not see an empty strait. They see a data void. They cannot calculate incident probability in a void. They cannot estimate exposure in a corridor where the vessels that are moving have deliberately erased themselves from the only tracking system insurers rely on. The vessels going dark are not reducing risk. They are destroying the data that would allow risk to be priced. Every transponder switched off before Hormuz entry removes a data point that actuaries need to model safe-transit probability. Every spoofed signal injects false data that corrupts the models from the other direction. The reinsurance market is not merely facing elevated risk. It is facing a measurement crisis where the instruments it depends on have been deliberately sabotaged by the ships using them. War-risk premiums have surged from 0.125% to between 1% and 3% of hull value. Capacity has contracted 60%. Seven P&I clubs covering 90% of global tonnage cancelled war-risk extensions. And the AIS spoofing that enables shadow fleet transits ensures those cancellations cannot be reversed, because the data that would demonstrate safe-transit conditions does not exist. The vessels that could prove the Strait is navigable are the same vessels erasing themselves from the record. Windward, Kpler, and Lloyd’s List Intelligence now fuse satellite imagery, synthetic aperture radar, RF geolocation, and behavioural anomaly scoring to detect dark and spoofed vessels. Over 1,100 vessels were flagged for GNSS manipulation in the Gulf in a single 24-hour period. But detection is not the same as insurability. Knowing a vessel went dark does not make the transit insurable. It makes it documented proof that the transit corridor is ungoverned. The timelapse shows an empty strait. The satellites show ghost ships. The actuaries see neither and cannot price what they cannot measure. The Strait is not closed by missiles. It is not closed by mines. It is closed by the absence of data. Full analysis here ! 👇 open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@stats_feed Spain is not correct. Normal is 0-5%

How much you should tip restaurant staff: 🇺🇸 USA: 20% 🇨🇦 Canada: 15-20% 🇳🇴 Norway: 10-20% 🇲🇽 Mexico: 15% 🇦🇷 Argentina: 10-15% 🇷🇺 Russia: 10-15% 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: 10-15% 🇦🇪 UAE: 10-15% 🇮🇱 Israel: 12% 🇪🇸 Spain: 10% 🇫🇷 France: 10% 🇬🇷 Greece: 10% 🇮🇹 Italy: 10% 🇪🇬 Egypt: 10% 🇰🇪 Kenya: 10% 🇸🇪 Sweden: 10% 🇿🇦 South Africa: 10% 🇹🇷 Turkey: 10% 🇺🇾 Uruguay: 10% 🇬🇧 UK: 10% 🇺🇦 Ukraine: 10% 🇮🇳 India: 7-10% 🇳🇱 Netherlands: 5-10% 🇩🇪 Germany: 5-10% 🇮🇩 Indonesia: 5-10% 🇻🇪 Venezuela: 5-10% 🇻🇳 Vietnam: 5-10% 🇧🇩 Bangladesh: 2-10% 🇦🇺 Australia: 0% 🇨🇳 China: 0% 🇩🇰 Denmark: 0% 🇯🇵 Japan: 0% 🇳🇬 Nigeria: 0% 🇸🇬 Singapore: 0% 🇰🇷 South Korea: 0%

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4/ “When a call center puts you on hold, we can still hear you! Shady sales folks will use what you say to hold against you. Stay safe lol.”

Personal income tax rate: 🇫🇮 Finland: 56.95% 🇩🇰 Denmark: 56% 🇯🇵 Japan: 55.97% 🇦🇹 Austria: 55% 🇸🇪 Sweden: 52.3% 🇧🇪 Belgium: 50% 🇮🇱 Israel: 50% 🇳🇱 Netherlands: 49.5% 🇵🇹 Portugal: 48% 🇪🇸 Spain: 47% 🇦🇺 Australia: 45% 🇨🇳 China: 45% 🇫🇷 France: 45% 🇩🇪 Germany: 45% 🇿🇦 South Africa: 45% 🇰🇷 South Korea: 45% 🇬🇧 UK: 45% 🇮🇹 Italy: 43% 🇮🇳 India: 42.74% 🇮🇪 Ireland: 40% 🇨🇭 Switzerland: 40% 🇹🇷 Turkey: 40% 🇳🇴 Norway: 38.2% 🇺🇸 US: 37% 🇮🇩 Indonesia: 35% 🇲🇽 Mexico: 35% 🇵🇰 Pakistan: 35% 🇨🇦 Canada: 33% 🇧🇷 Brazil: 27.5% 🇪🇬 Egypt: 25% 🇳🇬 Nigeria: 24% 🇺🇦 Ukraine: 18% 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: 15% 🇷🇺 Russia: 13% 🇷🇴 Romania: 10% 🇲🇪 Montenegro: 9% 🇬🇹 Guatemala: 7% 🇶🇦 Qatar: 0% 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: 0% 🇦🇪 UAE: 0%

Carl Icahn is one of the most prominent investors of our lifetime. He has a networth of $14 billion. However, he was just accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Here is the wild story:

Leading export by country: 🇦🇷 Argentina: Soybeans 🇦🇺 Australia: Iron 🇦🇹 Austria: Toxins 🇧🇯 Benin: Cotton 🇧🇷 Brazil: Soybeans 🇧🇩 Bangladesh: T-shirts 🇨🇦 Canada: Petroleum 🇨🇳 China: Electronics 🇨🇱 Chile: Copper 🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire: Cocoa 🇨🇺 Cuba: Cigars 🇩🇰 Denmark: Medicines 🇬🇹 Guatemala: Bananas 🇬🇾 Guyana: Drilling Platforms 🇪🇬 Egypt: Petroleum 🇪🇹 Ethiopia: Coffee 🇫🇮 Finland: Petroleum 🇫🇯 Fiji: Water 🇫🇷 France: Aircrafts 🇩🇪 Germany: Vehicle engines 🇮🇸 Iceland: Aluminum 🇮🇳 India: Petroleum 🇮🇩 Indonesia: Coal 🇮🇱 Israel: Diamonds 🇮🇹 Italy: Medicines 🇯🇵 Japan: Vehicle engines 🇰🇪 Kenya: Tea 🇰🇮 Kiribati: Tuna 🇲🇬 Madagascar: Vanilla 🇲🇾 Malaysia: Electronics 🇲🇼 Malawi: Tobacco 🇲🇻 Maldives: Fish 🇲🇽 Mexico: Vehicle engines 🇲🇩 Moldova: Sunflower seeds 🇲🇳 Mongolia: Coal 🇳🇿 New Zealand: Dairy 🇳🇬 Nigeria: Petroleum 🇰🇵 North Korea: Watch parts 🇳🇴 Norway: Petroleum 🇵🇰 Pakistan: Rice 🇵🇪 Peru: Copper 🇵🇭 Philippines: Electric circuits 🇷🇺 Russia: Petroleum 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: Petroleum 🇸🇬 Singapore: Electric circuits 🇿🇦 South Africa: Gold 🇰🇷 South Korea: Electric circuits 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka: Bras 🇪🇸 Spain: Petroleum 🇸🇾 Syria: Olive oil 🇸🇪 Sweden: Petroleum 🇨🇭 Switzerland: Gold 🇹🇷 Turkey: Petroleum 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Corn 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates: Petroleum 🇬🇧 UK: Petroleum 🇺🇸 USA: Petroleum

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The regional banking crisis began ~2 months ago. Inflation in the US has been at 5%+ for 23 straight months. As a result, 20+ events have challenged the US Dollar over the last month. Here's a thread with every major event challenging the US Dollar over the 2 months: 1/9

@therealleslamb0 Nice write up by chatgpt 👍👍