Syz the moment

Source: Wall St Engine

Japan, once predicted in the 1980s to eclipse the American economy, is now significantly smaller. China now appears to be on a similar trajectory. In 2021, China’s GDP had risen to 76% of that of the United States, and many analysts believed it would surpass the U.S. before 2030. That expectation has since unraveled. By 2024, the U.S. economy stood at $29.2 trillion compared to China’s $18.9 trillion—a gap that has widened for three consecutive years. Meanwhile, China’s working-age population is declining, its fertility rate has dropped to around 1.0—well below replacement level—and there is little immigration to offset the demographic decline. Yet America benefits from believing it faces a formidable rival. The belief is what keeps it competing. Source: Martin Varsavsky

Is the Gilt market facing another crisis? Source: Winston Smith

While Taiwan’s $977 billion economy is less than a quarter of the UK’s $4.3 trillion, last week Taiwan overtook the UK in stock market capitalization at $4.14 trillion, making it the world’s seventh largest, according to data compiled by Bloomberg showing the combined value of companies with a primary listing on the island. The UK’s market was valued at around $4.09 trillion. Source: Bloomberg, Neil Sethi

It seems that SK Telecom ($SKM) offers stronger exposure to Anthropic than Zoom ($ZM) due to a larger and more valuable stake. SKM owns ~1.07% versus ZM’s ~0.6%, making its holding worth about $8.6B vs. $4.8B at an $800B valuation. As a result, Anthropic represents a much bigger portion of SKM’s valuation. Investors effectively get more Anthropic exposure per share with SKM, while its core business appears undervalued. Despite recent gains, SKM is still seen as a better proxy for Anthropic ahead of a potential IPO. Source: Negligible Capital

It's substantially reduced Iran's oil exports (and inflow of hard currency), seized an Iranian ship and threatened secondary sanctions on Chinese banks that deal in Iranian oil. Meanwhile, oil prices are down from their highs. And the US is exporting record volume of il & gas. Kudos! Source: Robin Brooks

Everyone’s asking, “Which one’s the best?” Truth is: there’s no single winner. Each AI has its own lane. Source: AI Evolution

The Fed's total operating loss now stands at $210B over the past three years. Time to turn on the money printer Source: Jesse Cohen