News and my thoughts from the past week (03Aug2026)
To prevent Japan from selling even more US assets, he joined Japan in a massive coordinated intervention. But instead of selling USD, the US sold EUR. To keep this war going, the US has to bail out major holders of US assets to prevent them from selling... especially Treasuries. - X user Lukas Ekwueme
More than 1.2 million leveraged retail trading accounts in South Korea triggered margin calls as of July 13th, with an estimated 320,000–360,000 accounts fully liquidated, per Goldman Sachs. This means around 3.4% of the adult population in South Korea has received margin calls. The KOSPI is currently down another ~18% since July 13th. We believe that the total number of fully liquidated accounts is now above 500,000. - X user The Kobeissi Letter
Don't just upgrade the models without the governance, security and sandbox. It is almost foolish that such scenarios are not catered for and the hubris to run this. Experiment by one and the whole neighbourhood pays the price?
More than 1,100 employees across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta have signed a petition calling on the US government to help "deliberately pace" AI development. The letter warns there is "a real risk" that AI progresses faster than people can "understand or control." The petition comes days after OpenAI disclosed that its own AI mistakenly hacked into Hugging Face. - X user Coin Bureau
AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them, even if they're exceedingly rare, per FORTUNE
Well, this chart is absolutely terrifying... A record amount of IPOs in 2026 as the billionaires rush to cash out. We saw the exact same behaviour in 1999. - X user Financelot
A magnitude 7.1 quake struck Kumamoto Prefecture on July 28, registering the highest intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale in some areas. A tsunami advisory has been issued for the coasts of the Ariake Sea and the Yatsushiro Sea. - X user NHK World News
Shoppers are buying fewer items than a year ago, and grocery sales are declining as weakening unit sales are now outweighing rising prices, per CNBC
A former World Bank president has sounded the alarm, revealing that the Federal Reserve has lost over a trillion dollars—and counting—turning it into nothing more than a massive hedge fund for the rich and powerful. He claims the Fed is borrowing money from banks at 5.4% interest, then pouring it into government bonds, creating the illusion that the government’s financial situation is better than it actually is. He warns that this scheme isn’t just limited to the U.S.—it’s happening across central banks worldwide. - - X user Teddy - Polybacktest
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