Weekend Reading #289
This is the two-hundred-and-eigthy-nineth weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 26th October 2024
To receive a copy each week directly into your inbox, sign up here.
*****
What we're thinking.
An eventful week in geopolitics but fortunately not from a kinetic perspective. This week saw the BRICS gathering in St Petersburg. In a show of geopolitical strength, Russian President, Vladimir Putin welcomed pretty much everyone except Western leaders. The BRICS leaders themselves - Xi, Modi and even Cyril Ramaphosa (beaming from ear to ear) took their places alongside Putin. Lula cancelled as he hurt his head in a fall at home last weekend. And then there were more. Erdogan was there, Sisi was there and so was newish Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian. But in our eyes the biggest drawcard was Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, president of the UAE and a strong U.S. ally. Interesting was the almost complete lack of coverage by western media. And even more interesting was an apparent thawing of relations between India and China as Xi and Modi had a bilateral meeting for the first time in five years. Whatever one may think of the theatre of BRICS, this was a feather in the cap of Mr Putin.
Meanwhile, as the days count down to the US elections, this chart came across our inboxes courtesy of GS earlier in the week, showing that the options markets are pricing a 1-day implied move on election day of 2% - a number that’s not only exceptionally low (according to GS, the lowest since they started tracking this) metric. This was 4 days ago. Given the action over the past few days, things are definitely perking up – going into the home stretch, things are definitely going to start getting rather action packed.
What we're listening to.
Meme coins have dominated crypto all year long and the influencer du jour goes by a Twitter handle called must stop murad. He’s been around a while but shot to prominence in recent weeks when a blockchain sleuth publicized his holdings in a host of memecoins. Murad has capitalised on this to proselytise his thesis around memecoins. In this pod appearance on Blockcrunch he makes his case. It’s worth a listen to understand the dynamic behind what’s driving this iteration of memecoins.
Dr Brian Greyson is the preeminent voice in the study of near-death experiences. He appeared on The Tim Ferris Show, a pod I haven’t listened to in a long time. This is an excellent one. Greyson has studied and documented over 1000 cases of near-death experiences and investigated the commonalities and science behind them. For those with an open mind this is a Pandora’s box. DC
What we're reading.
I came across this quote from Abraham Lincoln which I really loved. “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better”. In an age of binary like or dislike it reminded me of a recent podcast I listened to with none other than President Joe Biden on Simon Sinek’s podcast, A Little Bit of Optimism. Biden spoke about how he used to deliberately do exactly this in a time with a far more bipartisan environment than today on Capitol Hill.
Something else worth mentioning once again is the performance of space related stocks. Yes, rates have come down and there is a bit of a frenzy in some spaces within the market. But since SpaceX demonstrated the granddaddy of reusability a week or so back on the Starship, everyone remembered that an entire industry is being born in front of our eyes. There are only 2 companies in the western world that can reliably launch rockets into space. One obviously is SpaceX which is by far and away the dominant player. But in second is a New Zealand based operator called Rocket Lab. It is a sensational story in itself and while SpaceX quite rightly takes all the limelight, Rocket Lab keeps delivering. And it’s a listed company. While of course there is no profitability for some time, once again there are only 2 companies that can reliably send stuff to space! And its stock is on a tear.
In Majalla this week a piece about whether the Syrian regime is looking to detach itself from Iran. Food for thought in an ever-changing region. DC
What we're watching.
Given the only actual “sword” fighting we see these days is fencing, and everything else shows up in the movies, it was quite an interesting watch that this video showed up on Youtube for me: Sword expert reacts to Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It’s basically a reality-check on some of the swordfighting moves seen in the films, and while one would expect a video like this to conclude that it was all made up, it turns out that what we see is much more accurate than expected. Of course, there are some bits that are overexaggerated (including Legolas stabbing with an arrow) as well as some revelations around the Hollywood language of weaponry sounds, but on balance, more bits that were factual and physically possible, and a very good reason to re-watch the original trilogy. And of course, some tips on how to properly use swords, daggers and axes, if ever required. EL