Baltic Dry Index. 1282 -19 Brent Crude 64.56
Spot Gold 3288 US 2 Year Yield 3.84 unch.
US Federal Debt. 36.730 trillion!!!
The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press
(or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S.
dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.
Ben Bernanke
This
morning, more tariff war wobble in the global stock casinos.
But
we are only in the polite opening phase of President Trump’s Great
Miscalculation. So far, very few, if any, workers worldwide have yet lost their
jobs.
Once
job losses start spiralling across the rest of the world and eventually into
the USA, the gloves will come off in the 2025s repeat of the 1930s, and the
Great Trumpian Race to the trade war bottom will get underway.
How
to kill off the “exorbitant privilege” of the dollar reserve standard and kick
start the new world order of central bank digital currencies.
Hong
Kong stocks fall 2% to lead losses in Asia-Pacific as Trump tariffs dent
sentiment
Updated
Wed, Apr 16 2025 12:48 AM EDT
Asia-Pacific
markets traded mostly lower Wednesday after Wall Street declined overnight as
investors assessed quarterly earnings, while tariff worries continued to weigh
on investor sentiment.
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell
2.11%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 declined 0.84%. China’s economy
expanded by a better-than-expected 5.4% in the first quarter, even as U.S.
tariff threats have prompted major investment banks to slash the country’s
annual growth outlook. Reuters’ economists had expected a 5.1% expansion year
on year.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.3%. South
Korea’s Kospi fell
0.47% while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.44%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained
0.19%.
UBS
recently downgraded its GDP forecast for China to 3.4% for 2025, and to 3% next
year. The investment bank’s chief China economist, Tao Wang, estimates that
tariff hikes imposed by the U.S. on Chinese goods will cause a more than 2
percentage points drag on China’s GDP growth.
Bloomberg on Tuesday reported that China had ordered
all airlines to halt deliveries of Boeing jets amid a tit-for-tat tariff war
with the U.S. This move could increase chances of a negotiation, according to
Louis Navellier, founder and chairman of Navellier & Associates.
“The
probability of a resolution of the trade spat between China and the U.S. is now
expected since Boeing and the technology industry are likely putting pressure
on the White House,” said Navellier.
U.S.
stock futures slipped as investors looked ahead to the release of a key retail
sales report and more earnings from the first-quarter season. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped
139 points, or 0.3%. S&P
500 futures and Nasdaq
100 futures dipped 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively.
Overnight
in the U.S., the three major averages fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost
155.83 points, or 0.38%, to close at 40,368.96. The S&P 500 declined 0.17%
and ended at 5,396.63. The Nasdaq
Composite ticked down 0.05% and settled at 16,823.17. The three
averages slipped following back-to-back winning sessions.
Asia-Pacific
markets live: China GDP, China retail data, Trump tariffs
Nvidia
says it will record $5.5 billion charge tied to H20 processors exported to
China
Published
Tue, Apr 15 2025 5:37 PM EDT
Nvidia said on Tuesday that
it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion tied to exporting H20
graphics processing units to China and other destinations. The stock slid more
than 6% in extended trading.
On
April 9, the U.S. government told Nvidia it would require a license to export
the chips to China and a handful of other countries, the company said in a filing.
The
disclosure is the strongest sign so far that Nvidia’s historic growth could be
slowed by increased export restrictions on its chips, which the U.S. government
says can be used to create supercomputers for military uses. Nvidia reports
fiscal first-quarter results on May 28.
During
President Biden’s administration, the U.S. restricted AI chip exports in 2022
and then updated the rules the following year to prevent the sale of more
advanced AI processors. The H20 is an AI chip for China that was designed to
comply with U.S. export restrictions. It generated an estimated $12 billion to
$15 billion in revenue in 2024.
Nvidia
CEO Jensen Huang said on the company’s last quarterly
earnings call in February that revenue from China had dropped to half
of pre-export control levels. Huang warned that competition in China is
growing, and for the second straight year, Nvidia
listed Huawei as a competitor in its annual filing.
China
is Nvidia’s fourth-largest region by sales, after the U.S., Singapore, and
Taiwan, according to the company’s annual report. More than half of its sales
went to U.S. companies in its fiscal year that ended in January.
Nvidia’s
H20 chip is comparable to the H100 and H200 AI chips used in the U.S. and other
countries, but it has slower interconnection speeds and bandwidth. It’s based
on a previous generation of AI architecture called Hopper introduced in 2022.
Nvidia is now focusing on selling its current generation of AI chips, called
Blackwell.
DeepSeek,
the Chinese company whose competitive AI model R1 unveiled earlier this year upended
markets, used H20 chips in its research.
In
addition to the existing Chinese export controls, Nvidia also faces new
restrictions on what it can export starting next month, under “AI diffusion
rules” first proposed by the Biden administration.
Nvidia
has argued that
further controls on its chips would stifle competition and potentially even
erode U.S. competitiveness in technology. The company previously said it
moved some of its operations, including testing and distribution, out of China
after the 2022 export controls.
More
Nvidia
says it will record $5.5 billion charge for H20 GPUs to China
Tokyo
has ‘many cards’ to play in U.S. tariff negotiations, says Japanese economic
advisor
Published
Wed, Apr 16 2025 12:32 AM EDT
Japan
has “many cards” to play in tariff negotiations with the United States,
according to Takeshi Niinami, senior economic advisor to Japan’s prime
minister.
His
comments comes ahead of a three-day trip by top negotiator Ryosei Akazawa to the
U.S. for talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade
Representative Jamieson Greer.
Niinami,
who is also chairman and CEO of Japanese drinks manufacturer Suntory Holdings,
told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”
that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the trade talks.
He pointed out that Japan has been the biggest foreign investor in the U.S. and the largest
foreign holder of U.S. Treasury bonds.
Japan should therefore talk about more opportunities to invest in the United
States, and will keep its massive stock of U.S. Treasurys, Niinami said, adding
“We know that the President is [very concerned] over the bond market,”
referring to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Japan
holds about $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasurys, and Trump said that the bond
market sell-off last week was part of the reason he U-turned on his
“reciprocal” tariffs.
“I
thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line,” Trump said. “They
were getting a little
bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”
Kevin
Hassett, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, told
CNBC on April 10 that the bond market decline contributed to Trump’s
decision.
The 10-year Treasury yield from
April 8 spiked above 4.5% on speculation a big foreign holder like Japan or
China was dumping U.S. bonds. Bond prices move inversely to yields, and rising
yields could mean higher U.S. mortgage rates.
Another
move Tokyo could make would be to talk about military purchases from the U.S.,
Niinami said, as it strives to increase defense spending to 2% of gross
domestic product.
Japan
and the U.S. have deep military relations, and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces use
a wide array of U.S. equipment, including fighter jets, helicopters and some
small arms.
“Let’s
normalize the relations, because we are the biggest ally of the United States.
So we want to normalize the relationship, and we want to upgrade the
relationship between [the] U.S. and Japan in terms of regional security,”
Niinami said.
Japan
had been hit with a 24% “reciprocal” tariff by Trump, although this has been
suspended for 90 days from April 9, leaving a 10% baseline tariff.
More
Tokyo
has 'many cards' to play in U.S. tariff talks: Japan advisor
In
other news, nothing good.
European
rating agency Scope sends US downgrade warning
Tue,
April 15, 2025 at 3:21 PM GMT+1
LONDON
(Reuters) - European credit ratings agency Scope has warned that the United
States could be downgraded if a lengthy trade war erodes long-term trust in the
dollar, or if President Donald Trump implements even more extreme measures such
as capital controls.
The
fallout from Trump's trade tariffs has included the dollar's sharpest
year-to-date fall against other major currencies in more than 50 years, while
credit default swap (CDS) markets, which investors use to hedge risk, are
pricing in as many as five U.S. rating downgrades.
Berlin-based
Scope, which is used alongside S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch by the
European Central Bank to judge creditworthiness, said one of the most exposed
countries to the trade war was the U.S. itself, particularly in more extreme
scenarios.
Those
include a protracted tariff fight and/or the introduction of U.S. capital
controls - or taxes on foreign investment - which could then lead to
"viable alternatives" to the dollar as the world's dominant currency.
"If
doubts about the exceptional status of the dollar were to increase, this would
be very credit negative for the U.S.," Scope's head of sovereign ratings,
Alvise Lennkh-Yunus, said in a report published on Tuesday.
It
is the first agency to deliver such a stark warning about a possible U.S.
rating downgrade in the wake of Trump's shake-up of the post World War II
global economic order.
Scope
currently rates the U.S. AA with a "negative" outlook. That is lower
than the AA+ scores of S&P and Fitch, and of Moody's, which is the only
major agency to still rate the U.S. a top-grade "triple A".
Lennkh-Yunus
added that doubts around the dollar's status would be fuelled if China and the
European Union deepen their trade ties; if China opens up its economy; and if
the EU can convince its citizens to invest more into the bloc's priority
projects.
"These
developments are unlikely to happen swiftly," Lennkh-Yunus said.
There
was a broader warning about other countries with significant trade surpluses
and/or financial exposure to the U.S. too.
Scope
currently rates the U.S. AA with a "negative" outlook. That is lower
than the AA+ scores of S&P and Fitch, and of Moody's, which is the only
major agency to still rate the U.S. a top-grade "triple A".
They
include open economies like Ireland, which ride global business cycles, those
sensitive to higher financing rates such as Italy, oil exporters, and countries
with weak currencies like Turkey and Georgia.
"The
eventual impact on growth, inflation, public debt, external credit metrics and
thus sovereign credit ratings, will ultimately depend on the macro-economic
environment," Scope's report said.
European rating
agency Scope sends US downgrade warning
China
halts Boeing deliveries as trade war intensifies
Tuesday
15 April 2025 10:17 am | Updated: Tuesday 15
April 2025 10:18 am
China
has instructed its airlines to stop taking deliveries from Boeing, in the
latest twist in the country’s fast-moving trade war with the US.
Sources
familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that officials had also requested
Chinese carriers halt purchases of any aircraft-related equipment and parts
from US companies.
Donald
Trump has imposed tariffs as high as 145 per cent on Chinese goods in a
bid to bring down the US’s near $300bn (£226.8bn) trade deficit with
China.. Beijing
has retaliated by hiking its own tariffs on goods imported to America.
The
move comes as a blow for Boeing, which is looking to claw back ground on rival
Airbus after a torrid 2024 that saw it grapple with a major safety crisis and a
multi-billion pound hit from machinist strikes.
China’s
aviation market is projected to become the largest globally by 2043, surpassing
North America and Europe to a value of around $61bn (£46.1bn).
Around
10 Boeing 737 Max aircraft are scheduled to enter China’s aircraft fleet,
according to data from Aviation Flights Group reported by Bloomberg.
It
comes as the chief executive of Ryanair, Boeing’s biggest customer, warned on Tuesday
the Irish airline could delay deliveries if tariffs are imposed on Boeing
aircraft.
Michael
O’Leary said there would be a “significant debate” over whether
manufacturers or airlines should shoulder the cost of tariffs.
“The
airlines will say the manufacturer must pay. I’m sure the manufacturer will
insist the airline pays,” he told the Financial Times.
Boeing
shares are down around seven per cent this year to date.
China halts Boeing
deliveries as trade war intensifies
‘Severe
strain’ on tech supply chains will cause more price rises in electronics
14
April 2025
The
“uncertainty” created by US President Donald
Trump’s changing tariffs policy is putting tech manufacturing supply chains
under “severe strain”, and sparking price rises, experts have said.
On
Monday, Sony confirmed it
was raising the price of some PlayStation 5 consoles in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand because of
what it called “challenging” economic conditions.
Over
the weekend, the US government said it would exempt electronics from its
sweeping new tariffs on imports to the US, but also indicated that this
reprieve would only be temporary while it decided on a tariff regime for the
sector.
Geraint
John, vice president of research at supply chain intelligence firm Zero100,
said more announcements similar to Sony’s price rises could be on the way.
“President
Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and computers from sky-high US import
tariffs may provide only temporary relief for Apple, Google, Dell and other
consumer electronics companies,” he told the PA news agency.
“They
remain hugely dependent on China, along with Vietnam and India, for
manufacturing, so any increase in tariffs on these countries above the current
10-20% level is likely to see consumers paying more for their devices.
“Sony’s
decision to raise prices for its PlayStation 5 by around 25%, including for
European customers, could be the first of many such announcements over the next
few weeks.
“Uncertainty
about the direction of US trade policy and tariffs strategy is putting tech
supply chains under a severe strain.
“As
well as incurring extra airfreight costs to move products between countries,
these headwinds will reduce tech firms’ ability to plan forward production with
confidence.
“Such
factors reduce supply chain efficiency and may exacerbate the upward pressure
on prices.”
Ben
Barringer, global technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said the “tariff
rollercoaster” was disruption that would “weigh heavy” on the sector.
“Things
are moving very quickly, so whether or not this is the settled position remains
to be seen. As ever, in Donald Trump’s world the only certainty is
uncertainty,” he said.
“Clearly,
announcements like this will weigh heavily on tech companies until they get a
much more obvious operating environment.
“The
actual impact on earnings remains to be seen, but with the latest results
season starting in earnest this week, every statement will be closely analysed
to get a view on what tariffs will do to the bottom line, and crucially, what
other companies are doing with their IT spend.
More
‘Severe strain’ on
tech supply chains will cause more price rises in electronics
US
economy is set to lose billions as foreign tourists stay away
April
15, 2025
The
US economy is set to lose billions of dollars in revenue in 2025 from a
pullback in foreign tourism and boycotts of American products, adding to a
growing list of headwinds keeping recession risk elevated.
Arrivals
of non-citizens to the US by plane dropped almost 10% in March from a year
earlier, according to data published Monday by the International Trade
Administration. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates in a worst-case scenario,
the hit this year from reduced travel and boycotts could total 0.3% of gross
domestic product, which would amount to almost $90 billion.
Foreign
tourism has been a tailwind for the US in recent years as the cessation of
pandemic-era restrictions sparked a resurgence of international travel. But
many potential visitors are now rethinking their vacation plans amid increased
hostility at the border, rising geopolitical frictions and global economic
uncertainty.
One
of them is Curtis Allen, a Canadian videographer who canceled an upcoming US
vacation after President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on his home
country and suggested it should become the 51st US state. Allen and his partner
have been on multiple camping trips to Oregon over the years, but this year,
they will be traveling around British Columbia instead.
“We’re
not just staying home,” said Allen, 34. “We’re going to go spend the same money
somewhere else.”
Allen’s
hesitance doesn’t stop there. He canceled his Netflix subscription and is
actively avoiding American imports at the grocery store.
“Now
it takes us double the time, because we’re looking at where the products came
from,” he said.
International
travelers spent a record $254 billion in the US last year, according to ITA
figures. Coming into 2025, the outlook was positive: The ITA projected in early
March that the US would welcome 77 million visitors this year, just shy of the
2019 record, before pushing to a new high in 2026.
But
those estimates came out just before stories of harsh detentions at US
airports, ensnaring travelers from countries like France and Germany, started
making headlines. Canadians, meanwhile – the largest group of foreign tourists
in the US – are choosing to stay put as Trump ramps up attacks on the country’s
economy and sovereignty.
Almost
$20 billion in retail spending from international tourists in the US may be at
risk, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis.
Early
signs of a sharp pullback are already showing up. Airfares, hotel rates and car
rental costs fell in March, according to a monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics
report on consumer prices published April 10. Economists at Goldman Sachs and
HSBC Holdings Plc said lower demand, including from foreign travelers, probably
played a role.
Omair
Sharif, president of Inflation Insights, noted the decline in hotel rates was
driven by an almost 11% drop in the Northeast in particular, possibly a result
of fewer Canadians traveling there.
More
US economy
is set to lose billions as foreign tourists stay away
British
Airways slash flight prices to US after anti-Trump backlash hits tourist
numbers
14
April 2025
As
official US data reveals a 17 per cent year-on-year slump in Europeans visiting
the United
States in
March 2025, airlines are slashing summer prices to
fill planes.
British
Airways is selling return tickets from Copenhagen via London Heathrow
to New
York JFK
in the peak holiday month of August for just £365 – less than half the cost of
a London-New York flight alone.
The latest
figures from the US International Trade Administration, which seeks to
promote American tourism, show extraordinary declines from key European markets
since Donald Trump was elected as president.
Immediately
upon taking office, Mr
Trump ordered much tougher controls on “all aliens seeking admission to the
United States,” demanding
they are “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible” – raising fears
among prospective visitors that they may be deported.
In
addition, the president has expressed a wish to acquire both Canada and
Greenland for the US.
Although
data on Canadian arrivals is not yet published in the official figures, the
effect on the Danish market appears clear. Greenland is an autonomous territory
within the kingdom of Denmark. Arrivals from
Denmark to the US were down around one-third year-on-year.
Some
of the slump is attributable to the early Easter in 2024, which boosted numbers
last year. The
shutdown of Heathrow on 21 March will have had a marginal effect,
causing some European travellers to cancel trips altogether after more than 700
outbound flights were axed.
But
in a bid to fill its flight in summer, British Airways is selling return trips
from many European cities via London Heathrow to New York JFK for less than
£500. In all cases research by The Independent – from
Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Paris – August
fares are available for under £500, much less than for the nonstop flights from
London to New York.
The
Independent has
invited British Airways to comment.
Four
months ago the research group Tourism Economics, part of Oxford Economics,
predicted a 9 per cent increase in visitors to the US in 2025. That is now
expected to be a 9 per cent decline. The organisation says: “Trump’s policies
and pronouncements have produced a negative sentiment shift toward the US among
international travellers.
“The
correlating decline in international travel to the US is expected to be
strongest in 2025, with persisting degrees of impact throughout the remainder
of Trump’s second term.”
Tourism
Economics identified as key headwinds, “negative sentiment” and “border and
immigration policies and uncertainty”. It predicts a decline of over 20 per
cent in visitor numbers from Canada.
More
British Airways
slash flight prices to US after anti-Trump backlash hits tourist numbers
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Our overriding goal in restructuring our financial architecture
should be that taxpayers never again have to save a failing financial
institution.
Henry Paulson
Why
stagflation now seems like America's "optimistic scenario"
April
15, 2025
“The
post-World War II… world economic order” is finished, says Reshma Kapadia
in Barron’s. On Wednesday 9 April, sweeping US import
charges on most countries in the world came into effect, including tariffs of 20% on the EU and 104% in the case of
China. As during the pandemic, ultra-efficient global supply chains are being
disrupted, raising inflationary pressure. The latest tariffs, which
Donald Trump unveiled on Wednesday 2 April in an event dubbed “Liberation Day”, take the average US tariff rate from 2.5%
last year to 22% now, according to calculations by Fitch Ratings. That is
the highest level since 1910.
Is
the US headed for stagflation?
Investors
have gone into tariff shock. The US S&P
500 dropped 12% in the four trading days following Trump's
"Liberation Day" tariff announcement. Down 18% since Trump’s
inauguration, American stocks sit on the cusp of a bear market. Germany’s Dax
was off 9% since “Liberation Day”, with the FTSE 100 falling 8%, correct at the time of writing.
Asia has been hit especially hard. Trading has been exceptionally volatile,
with the Vix index – known as the stock market’s fear gauge – spiking to its
highest level since the 2020 Covid crash.
“Wall
Street blew it,” says James Surowiecki in The Atlantic. For months, US stock investors have
been in denial that Trump was actually going to do what he said he was going to
do. Trump’s beliefs about trade – “deficits are horrible, and tariffs are
great” – have been “strikingly consistent” for almost 40 years. Markets have
been guilty of “wilful blindness”.
The
stock plunge heralds “a severe economic slowdown”, says The Economist. JPMorgan Chase’s analysts put the
chances of a global recession this year at 60%. While the US has been hardest
hit, the selloff across other major bourses has been almost as bad, suggesting
that tariff pain will be widely felt.
The
tariffs amount to a $600 billion tax hike on the cost of living that will hurt
consumers, says Bill Dudley on Bloomberg. In the past, the Federal Reserve has
ridden to the rescue of a weaker economy. Don’t expect a repeat this time.
Annualised US inflation is likely to reach nearly 5% over the coming months,
reducing the space for interest-rate cuts. “All told, stagflation is the optimistic scenario. More likely,
the US will end up in a full-blown recession.”
The
S&P is on the verge of its 13th bear market – defined as a 20% fall from
the peak – since 1950, says Russ Mould of AJ Bell. The average
post-war bear market lasted 381 days and knocked a third off stock valuations.
“The bigger the prior bull-market gain, the bigger the post-party hangover”
tends to be – not reassuring, given how overheated US markets became in 2024.
Eventually, stocks sell off so much that they become a good deal, but the US
market has a long way to fall before that becomes the case. On 19 times forward
2025 earnings, valuations are “still not cheap” by historic standards. And
remember that those valuations bake in forecasts of strong corporate profit
growth this year – forecasts that are likely to be cut as the trade war bites
into the bottom line.
Why
stagflation now seems like America's "optimistic scenario"
Trump’s
Tariffs Are as Bad as Bidenomics
Both
models of state-directed capitalism misallocate resources and make the nation
poorer.
April
14, 2025 4:35 pm ET
Not
since Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff has a president
chosen to disregard a larger body of informed opinion than President Trump did
when he instituted his protectionist trade policy. Based on a series of
verifiably false grievances—wages haven’t grown in 50 years, manufacturing has
been hollowed out by imports, countries with trade surpluses are “ripping us
off”—Mr. Trump used constitutionally questionable powers to abrogate
congressionally approved trade agreements and undermine the world’s trading
system. Markets convulsed in anticipation of the massive wealth annihilation
that would accompany the shredding of global supply chains and a transition to
a more protectionist world. The continuation of current trade policies will
likely produce a worldwide recession, and even if Mr. Trump’s policies succeed
in bringing back manufacturing jobs, the U.S. economy will be less efficient,
economic growth will be stunted, and most Americans will be worse off.
The
logic of the Trump protectionist policy is that a nation can become richer by
producing at home products that it could buy more cheaply abroad. Not only does
this defy reason, but the administration has presented no evidence showing how
the U.S. or any other nation has benefited economically from broad-based
protectionist policies.
Certainly
there is no evidence that the protectionism of the first Trump administration
benefited U.S. industrial production, which rose in 2017 and 2018 in response
to deregulation and tax cuts, then fell by 2% under protectionist policies in
2019. Economic growth, which reached a 13-year high in 2018, slumped in 2019
under Mr. Trump’s protectionist policies, and employment in manufacturing as a
percentage of total employment continued to fall on a secular basis, as it had
before Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
More,
subscription required
Trump’s Tariffs Are as Bad as Bidenomics - WSJ
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue only occasionally when something of interest occurs.
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
Space solar
startup preps laser-beamed power demo for 2026
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal April 13, 2025
Space
solar power, or what I like to call Starlink for electricity, is at once a
ludicrous idea and a bit of a pipe dream. None of that is stopping Baiju Bhatt
from giving it a go.
The
billionaire co-founder of financial services app Robinhood has a new startup
called Aetherflux focused
purely on beaming solar power from satellites to receivers on Earth. Having
announced it last year, Bhatt has now raised US$50 million in Series A funding
from a clutch of Silicon Valley investors, and aims to launch a test next year.
We've
heard about other efforts to deliver solar energy to Earth in the last couple
of years. In 2022, China built a
246-ft (75-m)-tall 'ground verification system' to
enable research into processes involved in receiving wirelessly transmitted
solar power. In January of this year, it revealed a plan
to build a solar power station in space measuring
0.6 miles wide (1 km).
The European
Space Agency is also on the case, as is a UK-based startup
in collaboration with Iceland. And in 2023, the California
Institute of Technology, aka Caltech, successfully demonstrated a
system to collect and beam a small amount of power from a satellite to a ground
receiver using microwaves.
However,
it plans to do things a bit differently: "We’re building a constellation
of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit, working together to transmit power to
many small ground stations. Instead of transmitting power through microwaves,
we’ll use infrared lasers, allowing for higher power output and smaller
footprints on Earth."
Bhatt
told TechCrunch that the
company will create portable 'ground stations' about
5-10 m (16-32 ft) in diameter to help bring electricity to locations around the
world.
Aetherflux's
angle is to harness the Sun's energy and beam it to remote islands, areas
struck by natural disasters, and to US military forces in active operations
around the world. The company heavily emphasizes that last bit in its spiel,
and has secured approval for its program to be supported this financial year by
the US Department of Defense's Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund
(OECIF).
No
matter how you slice it, space solar is difficult. Our own David Szondy goes
into some detail about how it works and
why that's the case in this piece.
Science
YouTuber Sabine Hossenfelder is skeptical about the tech because of major
challenges like the satellites facing potentially damaging temperature
fluctuations in Earth’s shadow a few times a year, and the need for
ultra-precise beam synchronization on intricately assembled power transmitters.
Nevertheless,
Aetherflux is gearing up to use a satellite bus – a satellite's core system
that supports key functions including propulsion and communication – from Los Angeles-based spacecraft platform
provider Apex Space.
With a
total of $60 million in funding and the US Military's blessing, the company
aims to launch a demonstration in Low Earth Orbit sometime in 2026.
Aetherflux: Space
solar startup aims for 2026 laser power demo
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
Every
global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed
more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.
Henry
Paulson
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