OilPrice.com (April 12)
The Iran “crisis has thrown the precarity of the current global energy trade into sharp relief,” accelerating shifts in energy policy. That shift is expected to include “expanded clean energy production capacity” and greatly benefit China. Chinese companies are “incredibly well positioned to continue to consolidate their dominance in global markets, as they are by far the cheapest producer and most accessible trade partner for many nations that have been left in the lurch by the effective blockade of Hormuz.”
Tags: Accelerating, Accessible, Blockade, Capacity, Cheapest, China, Clean energy, Consolidate, Crisis, Dominance, Global markets, Hormuz, Iran, Policy, Precarity, Producer, Shifts, Trade, Trade partner
Fortune (April 7)
The petrodollar “makes up the cornerstone of America’s dominance over global trade, but economists warn the currency architecture has been eroding at its edges for years now.” Indeed, the current era may bring “the biggest change in the world’s relationship to the dollar since 1974, and every day the Iran war continues, the cracks in the old system grow wider and wider. To be sure, the dollar is still overwhelmingly dominant, but it’s no longer the only game in town.”
Tags: 1974, Cornerstone, Cracks, Currency architecture, Dominance, Economists, Eroding, Global trade, Iran war, Old system, Petrodollar
Guessing Headlights (March 3)
“The rise of Chinese EVs has never been more apparent. Chinese automakers were once seen as emerging players, but it has now reshaped global competition with its dominance across the world.” Marking “a historic tipping point in the global transition to electric mobility,” in 2025, China was able to surpass “50% EV sales share for the first time… reaching around 12 million units and overtaking internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle sales for the first time.”
Tags: 12 million units, 2025, Automakers, China, Dominance, Electric mobility, Emerging players, EVs, Global competition, Internal combustion, Reshaped, Tipping point, Transition, Vehicle sales
New York Times (December 28)
“Breaking China’s dominance will require creativity and patience…. The United States and its allies must solve their rare earth problem. The world’s democracies cannot depend on the most powerful authoritarian state — and an increasingly aggressive one — for critical minerals. The potential costs, to prosperity and freedom, are too great.”
Tags: Aggressive, Allies, Authoritarian, China, Costs, Creativity, Critical minerals, Democracies, Dominance, Patience, Prosperity, Rare earth, U.S.
New York Times (October 16)
China is trying “to beat U.S. at its own game” by imposing rare earth restrictions. “Beijing’s latest effort to weaponize global supply chains is modeled on the American technology controls that it has long criticized.” This new thrust was in some way catalyzed by “Mr. Trump’s aggressive actions — including new fees for Chinese-owned ships that dock at U.S. ports.” Some analysts believe that “with its dominance over the production of these rare earth minerals and its control of other strategic industries, China may have an even greater ability than the United States to weaponize supply chains.”
Tags: Aggressive actions, Analysts, Beat, China, Dominance, Fees, Imposing, Ports, Rare earth, Restrictions, Ships, Supply chains, Technology controls, Trump, U.S., Weaponize
WARC (June 13)
“Alphabet, Amazon and Meta dominate the advertising market outside China: they’re set to account for 54.7% of that total in 2025 – equivalent to $524.4bn – rising to 56.2% in 2026. The introduction of AI stands to disrupt some ad revenue models, particularly in search, but Google’s dominance of that market will likely persist in the near term,” according to WARC’s Global Ad Forecast Q2 2025.
Tags: $524.4bn, 2025, 2026, Ad revenue, Advertising market, AI, Alphabet, Amazon, China, Disrupt, Dominance, Dominate, Global Ad Forecast, Google, Market, Meta, Persist
Fortune (May 24)
“Predictions that the dollar’s dominance will come to an end soon have proliferated since President Donald Trump launched his trade war,” but it’s not so simple. “Assets in other top economies like China, Japan and Europe still aren’t as attractive as those in the U.S.” while potential rivals also “suffer from governance or political headwinds.” Until another currency surmounts these issues, “global investors are faced with the familiar reality that there is still no alternative to the greenback, which has been the currency of choice for international payments and reserves for decades.”
Tags: Alternative, Assets, Attractive, China, Dollar, Dominance, Europe, Governance, Greenback, Headwinds, International payments, Investors, Japan, Political, Predictions, Rivals, Top economies, Trade war, Trump, U.S.
MarketWatch (March 19)
“There is a long-running academic debate about why the dollar’s strength has persisted for so long, with some arguing that its value goes hand in hand with U.S. power as a security guarantor and the dominant player in the post-World War II multilateral institutions. If the U.S. is now abandoning these roles, others will be forced to stand up for themselves, and the dollar’s unquestioned dominance could finally come to an end.”
Tags: Abandoning, Debate, Dollar, Dominance, End, Long-running, Multilateral institutions, Persisted, Power, Security guarantor, Strength, U.S.
Institutional Investor (February 10)
“The reality is that DeepSeek’s January 2025 release should not have caught anybody off guard. DeepSeek has been transparent about its research and ambitions in AI development, publishing its research in a series of more than 10 papers on arVix and GitHub prior to the January paper,” not to mention disclosure elsewhere. “Despite DeepSeek being an open secret to many, the release of its R1 models, did blindside U.S. tech Illuminati and market whizzes.” Much of this is due to the “dangerous assumption” that U.S. technological dominance is assured because of “an insurmountable lead in frontier AI technologies.”
Tags: AI development, Ambitions, arVix, Blindside, Dangerous assumption, DeepSeek, Dominance, GitHub, Insurmountable, Open secret, R1 models, Reality, Release, Research, Tech Illuminati, Transparent, U.S.
Financial Times (March 17)
“A strange thing happened this week: calm.” U.S. data revealed higher than expected price inflation. “This time around, however, government bonds wobbled only slightly and both US and global stocks held it together around record highs.” The absence of drama indicates “interest rates are shedding their suffocating dominance over global markets, and that stocks are climbing not because they are huffing the speculative fumes of imminent and aggressive potential rate cuts but because they’re worth it.”
Tags: Calm, Dominance, Global, Government bonds, Inflation, Interest rates, Markets, Rate cuts, Record highs, Speculative, Stocks, Suffocating, U.S.
