China announced a major escalation in export controls on critical minerals this week.
ChinaTalk provides a great overview in conversation with Chris McGuire and Chris Miller -->
www.chinatalk.media/p/emergency-...
@mileskellerman.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs. Working on the intersections of finance, crime, and international politics. Website: mileskellerman.com Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/mileskellerman
China announced a major escalation in export controls on critical minerals this week.
ChinaTalk provides a great overview in conversation with Chris McGuire and Chris Miller -->
www.chinatalk.media/p/emergency-...
A quiet bombshell in Europeβs tech world
The Dutch government seems to have effectively frozen operations of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker, citing national security, according to corporate filing today - via @zichenwanghere
Last December, China sought to choke off America's access to a critical strategic mineral. But in a new post, I find that supply chains adjusted at lightning speed.
Belgium, of all places, has replaced China as America's top source. It shows that weaponizing trade can have very strange side-effects
*What One Mineral Reveals About the U.S.βChina Trade War*
China has banned the export of antimony to the U.S. But in a new post, I find that global supply chains - both legal and illegal - are finding ways to adjust.
#polisky #econsky #lawsky #china
mileskellerman.substack.com/p/what-one-m...
As Lester Bangs once said, "You'll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle"
www.ft.com/content/5b00...
Devils in the details. EU wants to issue long-term bonds backed by frozen Russian assets. Requires guarantee sanctions are in place throughout maturation period (the legal basis of the freeze). But sanctions must be renewed by unanimous vote every six months.
www.ft.com/content/4585...
π¨New working paperπ¨
In this updated work with Annette Alstadsaeter, @bluebery-planterose.com , @gabrielzucman.bsky.social and @andokl.bsky.social , we use leaked data to chart the rise of offshore real estate in Dubai
www.taxobservatory.eu//www-site/up...
"Sri Lanka has denied Chinese military vessels entry into Hambantota several times despite China Merchant Group having an 85 percent controlling stake in the port...while [CMG] may have a controlling stake to operate the port, the Sri Lanka Port Authority, a state body, retains legal ownership."
15.09.2025 18:37 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Fascinating topic and thought-provoking argument about the dangers of preemptively striking suspicious satellites β>
15.09.2025 07:00 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0ββ¦SEALs punctured the [civilian] boat crewβs lungs with knives to make sure their bodies would sink.β
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...
Following post-Crimea sanctions, "Russian deposits in tax havens increased by an average of 15% relative to their synthetic control [$2.25 billion]"
From new working paper by Langenmayr et al, "Bypassing Sanctions: Hide βn Seek in Tax Havens?"
www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo...
This interview, which is also available to listen to as a podcast, provides a useful overview of some of the dangerous trends weβve been seeing in recent months regarding federalization and militarization of state and local police functions.
28.08.2025 14:33 β π 17468 π 6811 π¬ 871 π 481FinCEN released a notice today urging financial institutions to pay attention to Chinese-Mexican money laundering networks. I touched on this topic in a prior post and have a lengthier piece in progress -->
FinCEN release: www.fincen.gov/sites/defaul...
mileskellerman.substack.com/p/the-disass...
bsky.app/profile/jake...
27.08.2025 04:19 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0βonly 3.5% to 20% of those who finish their program achieve this goal [TT position].β Brutal stats
26.08.2025 21:05 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0βThe reality of Trumpβs threat to the very system that investors depend on has failed to become the conventional wisdom among tradersβ¦β
Thereβs a cognitive dissonance here. Accurately pricing in regime change is so costly as to be psychologically unfathomable. So we justβ¦donβt.
Now letβs bundle those bets into a synthetic product, and allow college students to parlay bets on that product with the Badgers beating Ohio State, all financed through Klarna. Itβs the American way.
www.wsj.com/finance/comm...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... @abenewman.bsky.social and meself are a cover story.
19.08.2025 08:52 β π 131 π 22 π¬ 5 π 61/US gov stating unprecedented financial expropriation. From tech to law firms to Universities, threat of state coercion is used for corporate tithing. Without pushback, this behavior will escalate and threaten the economy. Who will invest when the gov will just take it.
fortune.com/2025/08/13/b...
Eva Douβs House of Huawei covers some of these contradictions. Itβs a great read: sites.prh.com/houseofhuawei
14.08.2025 09:02 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Reuters reports the US is embedding tracking devices in the packaging of AI chip shipments to China.
As I wrote in a recent post (below), the ultimate goal is much more ambitious: embed tracking into the chips themselves.
#polisky #econsky #lawsky
www.reuters.com/world/china/...
This was really something. What struck me most was the sense of sadness underneath the surface. The host saying heβs far right βonly because theyβre kind of my community.β
09.08.2025 08:52 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0A fact befitting of our times: the U.S. Army operates 1,889 slot machines in 79 foreign bases.
www.wired.com/story/us-mil...
Why did Chinaβs cyber regulator just summon Nvidia over security concerns?
I have an essay for you β>
open.substack.com/pub/mileskel...
A good way to understand this is to substitute βMetaβ for βan AIβ in this sentence:
31.07.2025 14:11 β π 6 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0The connecting thread between Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein, Zohran Mamdani and Brian Eno. www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-old-de...
30.07.2025 12:44 β π 350 π 73 π¬ 13 π 20Want to buy a military-grade rifle capable of piercing armor? Florida requires no permit, no background check, and there is no limit on the quantity you can purchase.
And that's great news for Haiti's gangs.
Great visual investigation by the @financialtimes.com
ig.ft.com/haiti-gangs/
A significant escalation in the war on general purpose computing.
27.07.2025 18:22 β π 3 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0The U.S. wants to track the location of every AI microchip. And it also wants the ability to remotely shut them down.
But this isn't just about smuggling. In a new post, I argue this might be the power play of the century.
#polisky #econsky #tech
mileskellerman.substack.com/p/this-chip-...
Interesting. Presumably they are also making their voices heard on the Chip Security Act. I suspect theyβll have a harder climb this time, as Trump has included chip tracking in his βAI Action Planβ www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...
27.07.2025 15:41 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0