The Group Chat: Buongiorno

A GREY SWAN PUBLICATION Monday April 21, 2025 Swan Dive — April 21, 2025 The Robots Are Running, the Elites Are Cashing Out Addison Wiggin While the rest of us were back-dating our taxes, twenty-one humanoid robots lined up for a half-marathon in Beijing this weekend. One managed to finish in 2 hours, 40 minutes. A few shuffled along admirably. One ran straight into a fence and exploded. It was part science fair, part Skynet warm-up act — but also a perfect metaphor for the race we’re now watching between the U.S. and China: chaotic, comical, but very real. Both countries are pouring billions into robotics and AI, trying to dominate what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls “the next industrial revolution.” Over the Easter weekend, the evidence mounted. Trump’s tariff regime is realigning global interests. And the stakes are rising: Who will control the next version of the world economy — and what gets broken in the process. 🤖 Rise of the (Sluggish) Machines China’s Ministry of Industry has declared humanoid robots the “new frontier in technological competition.” The country is investing more than $10 billion across local governments to ramp up development and mass production. But the real edge still belongs to the U.S., thanks to chips — Nvidia’s chips, specifically. With export bans now blocking China from buying the good stuff, Beijing’s bots might be running on borrowed time. Still, don’t laugh too hard at the ones crashing into fences. They’re learning fast — and they’re coming. 📦 Tariffs Slow Packages, Not Punches Starting today, DHL is halting high-value deliveries to the U.S. due to new tariffs and customs red tape. Packages over $800? On pause. And by May 2, even low-cost imports like Temu and Shein are going to hit a wall. “Significant increase” in scrutiny is the polite phrase. In practice, it’s trade policy with a baseball bat — and your order of knockoff sneakers is collateral damage. These Texans Have a BIG Secret… Hundreds gathered to privately celebrate deep in Texas’ brush country — locals, state officials, energy insiders, a former U.S. Secretary of Energy, even George W. Bush. Why? Opportunity and MONEY. Not from oil or natural gas … but an energy-packed METAL that’s set to unleash a massive, new third wave of Texas energy wealth. Click here for details. 📉 Insiders Head for the Exits While the average Wall Street compiled 401(k) was getting kicked in the teeth, some of the smartest people on Wall Street were quietly cashing out. Mark Zuckerberg dumped $733 million in Meta stock in January and February — before Trump’s tariffs triggered a 32% nosedive. Oracle’s Safra Catz sold $705 million worth before her company’s 30% plunge. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon? Out with $234 million. It’s almost like they knew something. Or maybe it’s just luck. Billionaire luck. 🧠 AI and the Magnificent Meltdown Tesla and Alphabet report earnings this week, but the glow has worn off the Magnificent Seven. Tesla’s missed delivery targets, scaled back Cybertruck production, and is fending off rumors of a hiring freeze. Alphabet just lost a major antitrust case and is headed into the remedy phase, where the government may push for it to spin off Chrome or Android entirely. ⚖️ Google, Meet the Guillotine Today, the remedy phase of the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google begins. Judge Amit Mehta already called the company “a monopolist” last summer. Now the real conversation begins: how much of Google should be broken off and sold for parts? The government wants to end paid placement on mobile devices. They might go for bigger scalps— Chrome, Android, maybe even the ad empire itself. Google says people use their products “because they want to.” The court might soon say otherwise. 🧵 Meta's Monopoly Problem Isn’t Over Either  The FTC’s antitrust case against Meta resumes this week, accusing Zuckerberg of buying his way to monopoly status by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta’s defense? Those platforms succeeded because of Meta. The court will now hear from expert witnesses on market definition — a.k.a., the part where lawyers argue over what counts as a monopoly in 2025. It's dry, yes, but with billions on the line. 🔋 Tesla, Alphabet, Boeing, Capital One, and Chipotle—Oh My Earnings season continues with Tesla (Tuesday), Alphabet (Thursday), Boeing (Wednesday), Capital One and Chipotle in between. Markets are looking for anything stable to grab onto. It’s still early yet, but this week we’ll start to get a picture of where corporate America stood before Liberation Day, and get a better sense of what havoc tariffs may yet wreak. 📉 Big Picture: Confidence is the Commodity Whether it’s humanoid robots tripping over each other, insiders dumping stock, or DHL refusing to deliver, the pattern is the same: the system’s still running, but nobody trusts it. The AI boom, the tariff war, the regulatory storm — they’re all just symptoms of a larger breakdown in credibility. And in markets, once trust goes, everything else goes with it. To say nothing of the trust in the value of money itself. - Addison P.S. Grey Swan Live! returns again Thursday, April 24  at 11am EST. We’ll explore what the new AI trade war means for real-world investing — and the natural resources and energy that’ll be needed to drive it. If you’re a paid member and you missed it, be sure to review last week’s Grey Swan Live! right here. Jason Cozens, Glint founder and CEO, shared a historic legal development regarding transactional gold in Arkansas. The ink on the legislation is still drying, and the mainstream media hasn’t caught wind yet. But it could have a profound impact on the future of money as we know it.     As always, your cheerful reader feedback is welcome: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com (We read all emails. Thanks in advance for your contribution.) How did we get here? Find out in these riveting reads: Demise of the Dollar, Financial Reckoning Day, and Empire of Debt — all three books are now available in their third post-pandemic editions. You might enjoy one or all three. (Or… simply pre-order Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or if you prefer one of these sites: Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million or Target.) Please send your comments, reactions, opprobrium, vitriol and praise to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com

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