Articles
March 19, 2020
The Oil Price War Nobody Won: When the Cartel Broke
The war is spreading this week, and the war is the price: the oil that crashed on March 9, the Brent that fell thirty percent in a day, the biggest one-day drop since 1991, the WTI that slid toward thirty-one dollars. The war is the politics: the OPEC meeting that collapsed on March 6, the Russia that refused the cuts, the Saudi Arabia that slashed the prices, the output that was raised, the flood that followed. The oil price war is the March 2020 story, and the story is the lesson: the cartel that broke, the demand that vanished, the producers who will pay.
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February 27, 2020
The China Pause: When the Supply Chain Stuttered
The pause is spreading this week, and the pause is the warning: the Apple announcement on February 17, the statement that the company would not meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter, the first cut driven by the coronavirus, the second warning in fourteen months. The pause is the virus: the outbreak that began in Wuhan, the factories that closed, the stores that shuttered, the iPhones that could not be made, the supply that stuttered. The China pause is the February 2020 story, and the story is the lesson: the supply chain that is concentrated in one country, the risk that was priced at zero.
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January 22, 2020
The 737 MAX Line Goes Silent: When Boeing Stopped Building
The line is going silent this week, and the silence is the halt: the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington that stopped building the 737 MAX, the suspension that the company confirmed on January 21, the first halt of the program in more than twenty years, the jets that wait in the lots, the industry that watches. The halt came after the grounding, the grounding that began in March, the crashes that killed the 346 people, the investigation that found the fault, the trust that broke. The 737 MAX line is the January 2020 story, and the story is the lesson: the production that stops when the confidence dies.
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December 12, 2019
The European Green Deal: When Brussels Bet on the Climate
The deal is the announcement, and the announcement is the week: the European Commission that presented the Green Deal on the eleventh of December, the von der Leyen team that had been in office for ten days, the plan that touches every sector of the economy, the climate that became the first priority of the mandate. The deal is the December 2019 story: the Commission that promised the first 100 days and delivered in the first two weeks, the mandate that had begun on the first of December, the strategy that will shape the decade, the regulation that will move the markets, the businesses that will have to change. The Green Deal is the news, and the news is the beginning.
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November 13, 2019
Singles Day: The $38 Billion Day
There is a day that broke the records this week, and the day is the Singles Day: the shopping festival that Alibaba ran on the eleventh of November, the twenty-four hours that produced thirty-eight point four billion dollars in sales, the 268.4 billion yuan that moved through the platform, the twenty-six percent growth over the year before. The festival is the Monday event: the flash sales and the live streams, the two hundred thousand brands and the seventy-eight countries, the hundreds of millions of orders that poured in. The Singles Day is the November 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the operations that make the biggest shopping day on earth possible.
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October 23, 2019
Quantum Supremacy: The 200-Second Claim
There is a claim that was published this week, and the claim is the supremacy: the paper that Google placed in Nature on Wednesday, the twenty-third of October, the experiment that the Sycamore processor ran in two hundred seconds, the calculation that the company says would take the fastest supercomputer ten thousand years. The claim is the milestone: the first time that a quantum machine has beaten the classical machines at their own game, the result that the field has chased for decades, the moment that was published after months of rumors. The claim is the October 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the breakthrough that is real and the hype that must be sorted.
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September 17, 2019
The Attack on Abqaiq: Oil's 5 Percent
There is a fire that burned this weekend, and the fire is the attack: the strikes that hit the Saudi oil facilities on Saturday, the Abqaiq processing plant and the Khurais field, the world's largest oil processing operation, the heart of the kingdom's exports. The attack knocked out the production: five point seven million barrels a day, about half of what Saudi Arabia pumps, about five percent of what the world consumes, the largest single disruption in the history of the oil trade. The attack is the September 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the fragile machines that the world economy runs on.
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August 16, 2019
WeWork's $47 Billion Paper Tower
There is a tower that is being built this week, and the tower is the paper: the WeWork headquarters in the clouds, the valuation that reached forty-seven billion dollars in January, the company that filed to go public on Wednesday, the S-1 that laid the numbers bare. The filing is the August 14 event: The We Company's prospectus, the losses that run to the billions, the founder who owns the trademark and the buildings, the model that rents long and sells short. The WeWork story is the August 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the valuation that is a story before it is a business.
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July 25, 2019
The $5 Billion Fine: Facebook's Privacy Reckoning
There is a fine that was announced this week, and the fine is the record: the five billion dollars that Facebook will pay to settle the Federal Trade Commission investigation, the penalty that is the largest in the agency's history, the settlement that was approved by the commissioners and announced on Wednesday. The fine is the reckoning for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the case that grew out of the 2012 consent order, the investigation that ran for more than a year, the deal that came with a twenty-year decree. The fine is the July 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the privacy that has become a boardroom matter.
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June 20, 2019
Libra: Facebook's Currency Ambition
There is a currency that arrived this week, and the currency is the Libra: the coin that Facebook unveiled on Tuesday, the white paper that was published on the eighteenth of June, the stablecoin that is backed by a basket of the world's major currencies, the project that is meant to bring banking to the unbanked. The announcement came with the partners in place: Visa and Mastercard and PayPal, Uber and Spotify and Vodafone, Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, twenty-seven founding members in all, the names that give the project its weight. The Libra is the June 2019 story, and the story is the lesson: the biggest social network that wants to run the world's money.
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