OK, did not see this coming.
This is what soft (financial) power looks like now, then?
Back a million news cycles ago when Trump said he wanted Panama canal he wasn't, um, kidding? Just that BlackRock, the informal American sovereign wealth fund, is the entity taking it over.
mh-kay!
The canal has become a flashpoint in Trump’s first 100 days in office, as the US president looks to expand the country’s borders and take control of infrastructure assets — roiling US allies and countries that had profited from decades of growing free trade.
The deal with BlackRock comes after the asset manager’s acquisition of GIP, which helped make the firm a force in infrastructure investing.
Seemed the sellers did not think it had to do with political posturing:
The transaction is “purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports”, said CK Hutchison co-managing director Frank Sixt.
It's hard to make sense of absolutely everything in this weird world.
non-paywall:
https://archive.md/jytZ9
I recommend every bitcoiner read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". I read it a loooong time ago and it really opened my eyes on stuff like this. That book influenced a lot of people and now people that haven't read it know many of the things it exposed but its still worth reading.
I just re-read the 3rd edition and I think it's still relevant - and a good read.
Anything significantly updated from previous editions?
Its mostly reflecting on some more current events up to the invasion of Ukraine. To my best memory the core of it is unchanged.
Cool, thanks. Perkins recent appearance on The Bitcoin Standard podcast was interesting. His thoughts on China specifically.
Wait that's a podcast now? Haha. Thanks imma check it out. ❤
Oh yeah, there's been a podcast for a long time.
261. John Perkins: The Economic Hitman
I'm such a boomer haha. Thanks.
It's 4th Turning chaos season. Hold on to your butts.
LEEEESSSGO!
How does blackrock own something like that?
Are they going to split it into an etf? Lol
Good question. That should have been in the article.
Maybe a specific fund, maybe private equity yada-yada?
They need to create another fund for Greenland
nvm. Blackrock not needed. Just realized its available on Prime....
Ships and sold from Amazon or 3rd party seller? Gotta check the seller rating and make sure they're legit.
True, probably chinese knockoffs...
Panama government can be bought off. Always has been. The canal is a vehicle for graft and money laundering.
Of course.
What government in central and south america cant be bought?
Of course
My point is the canal provides more opportunities. Without the canal what can Panama barter with. I suppose fruit. Do they grow fruit in Panama? I must be thinking of Nicaragua
They arent buying the whole canal.
Just two ports on either side of it.
Panama should not manage the canal
Well our government is broke and is a degenerate with like 7 maxed out credit cards and 37 trillion in debt and keeps spending on things it can’t afford.
Someone needed to buy it for us!
very neat credit card deals, though: 3.34% APY, and ability to print numerator to always service the nominal debt load
BlackRock has so much money, they can financialize everything.