Key PointsBillionaire Peter Thiel in the fourth quarter liquidated his hedge fund's positions in Apple and Microsoft, two stocks that most Wall Street analysts believe are undervalued.
Key PointsBillionaire Peter Thiel in the fourth quarter liquidated his hedge fund's positions in Apple and Microsoft, two stocks that most Wall Street analysts believe are undervalued.
The Silver Peace Prize lili41/iStock via Getty Images This is a defining moment for the commodities market, and if you’ve been watching the screens over the last week, you know the air is thick with tension. We are swinging between the "War Premium" and the "Peace Pivot," and for the disciplined investor, volatility is where the real money is made. I’ve been calling this the Silver Peace Prize bec...
The Silver Peace Prize lili41/iStock via Getty Images This is a defining moment for the commodities market, and if you’ve been watching the screens over the last week, you know the air is thick with tension. We are swinging between the "War Premium" and the "Peace Pivot," and for the disciplined investor, volatility is where the real money is made. I’ve been calling this the Silver Peace Prize because IF the world celebrates a potential end to current conflicts, the market is about to hand us a once-in-a-generation entry point for silver, gold, and uranium miners. Trump is finally closer to a deal in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and Putin is at the table. We know the 47th President has his eyes on the Nobel Peace Prize, and that means a compromise with Iran is no longer a fringe theory; it’s a distinct possibility. Meanwhile, silver has spent the last year acting less like a metal and more like a high-beta fear gauge. It’s the VIX in physical form. If we get a handshake in Geneva or a breakthrough in the Middle East, the safety trade will unwind with the force of a hurricane. We’ve already seen the preview. When the "Dmitriev Package" leaked (you can read about it in my last article here ), that massive proposal to bring Russia back into the dollar system and the lower fuel prices that would ensue, silver didn’t just dip; it cratered to $74. When Mark Carney reportedly walked out of those tense tariff negotiations with Canada, we saw it snap back to $80. This volatility is a masterclass in psychological warfare. But here is the secret: once the war fear is gone and the political risk premium has forced silver and gold down, the market will wake up to a cold, hard physical reality. Even in a peaceful world, there simply isn't enough silver to power the AI data centers, the global solar rollout, and the next-gen defense industry. Furthermore, America still has to pay for its ballooning debts, putting a floor under gold. I’m looking for a Peace Crash to bring silver to...
Butter, her novel about a female serial killer, was a global hit. As Asako Yuzuki’s second book is published in English, she talks about criticism at home – and why she’ll be writing darker stories in the future The next time Japanese novelist Asako Yuzuki comes to the UK, she would like to bake some traditional Japanese muffins for Paul Hollywood on The Great British Bake Off, she says when we me...
Butter, her novel about a female serial killer, was a global hit. As Asako Yuzuki’s second book is published in English, she talks about criticism at home – and why she’ll be writing darker stories in the future The next time Japanese novelist Asako Yuzuki comes to the UK, she would like to bake some traditional Japanese muffins for Paul Hollywood on The Great British Bake Off, she says when we meet over video call. It is evening in Tokyo, where she lives with her partner and eight-year-old son. “I’ve had my bath and am ready for bed,” she explains, via translator Bethan Jones, apologising for being in her pyjamas. She thinks the Bake Off judge would be particularly impressed by “marubouro” muffins, from Nagasaki . “Kazuo Ishiguro also comes from Nagasaki and British people love Ishiguro, so they are bound to love these muffins,” she continues. “They go very well with tea.” As anyone who has read Yuzuki’s international bestseller Butter will know, Yuzuki is all about food. Based on the 2009 real-life “Konkatsu Killer” case ( konkatsu means marriage hunting), in which 35-year-old Kanae Kijima was convicted of poisoning three men, Butter follows the relationship between journalist Rika Machida and Manako Kajii, a serial killer and gourmet cook, through a succession of interviews in Tokyo Detention Centre. Yuzuki even signed up for the high-class cookery school in Tokyo that Kijima attended as research. The result is an irresistible mix of social satire and feminist thriller, dripping with descriptions of buttery rice and soy sauce. Continue reading...
Legendary nightclub Le Palace, where Serge Gainsbourg and Prince also performed, to rise again In the late 1970s, Le Palace in Paris’s busy theatre district was one of continental Europe’s most famous nightclubs. On the opening night on 1 March 1978, Grace Jones stunned VIP guests with her rendition of Edith Piaf’s classic La Vie en Rose. Later, Serge Gainsbourg and Prince came to perform, Bob Mar...
Legendary nightclub Le Palace, where Serge Gainsbourg and Prince also performed, to rise again In the late 1970s, Le Palace in Paris’s busy theatre district was one of continental Europe’s most famous nightclubs. On the opening night on 1 March 1978, Grace Jones stunned VIP guests with her rendition of Edith Piaf’s classic La Vie en Rose. Later, Serge Gainsbourg and Prince came to perform, Bob Marley was photographed there and Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld were part of a glittering cast of international celebrities, politicians, designers and models who came to drink and dance. Continue reading...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Something very unusual happened in the market in the last week of February. It sold off, in part, thanks to an article on Substack. James van Geelen is the founder of Citrini Research, which published a piece a week ago titled, “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis.” It was not w...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Something very unusual happened in the market in the last week of February. It sold off, in part, thanks to an article on Substack. James van Geelen is the founder of Citrini Research, which published a piece a week ago titled, “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis.” It was not written as a forecast of an imminent disaster, but rather as a scenario analysis in which AI capabilities lead to widespread white collar job losses, triggering a deep downturn, and a financial crisis. Nonetheless, the piece went extraordinary viral, gathering all kinds of responses from economists and research shops and even Citadel Securities. On this episode, we speak with James, the piece's co-author, about what Citrini Research actually is, why he wrote the piece, and why this is a scenario worth paying attention to, even if it's not the most likely outcome.