Unless you’ve been on an island without cell phone coverage for the past several days (in which case, good for you!) you are certain to have heard of the non-coup, coup attempt in Russia over the weekend.
The graveyard of once legendary business franchises has just added one more new member to its ignominious fraternity. The hastily arranged acquisition of Credit Suisse by its chief Swiss rival UBS in March 2023, ended the 166-year run of the global symbol of Swiss banking largesse. Credit Suisse was once the 15th largest bank in the world with offices in 50 countries and assets of over $1 trillion USD.
Sino-pessimism is easy to find these days, perhaps with good reason. China spent 2021 cracking down on its most lucrative businesses, shuttering entire for-profit sectors, seeing several large property companies teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, suffer energy shortages, constrain the economy under an ongoing zero-Covid policy.
In a market filled with liquidity and searching eagerly for the next growth story, electric vehicle (EV) companies, and their supply chain are seeing a lot of flows. Most famously, Tesla shot up 7x in 2020 after finally turning a profit for the first time in its history.
