The Silk Road

Good morning LPs,

This weekend, I danced my literal ass off at a rave in Miami. But I’m now refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to get back to work.

Anyway, let’s get into today’s newsletter.

Hard and Fast News

fake headlines, real news

Trump says he’ll move to suspend the federal gasoline tax. “I know my adventures in the Middle East have made things a little pricey, especially for the people I care about who drive cars that take 93, so I figured I’d give back,” said the President. (AP)

Arcadia Mayor, accused of being a Chinese foreign agent, strikes a deal with the feds and resigns. “Immediately after discovering she was using DeepSeek as her AI of choice to write emails, we knew she was a spy,” commented the head of the FBI investigation. (LA Times)

Press dinner gunman pleads not guilty to attempting to assassinate Trump. “My client was running with the rifle toward the President to protect him because he believed someone else was going to attempt to assassinate him,” said the defendant’s public attorney in his opening statement. (CNN)

Trump Visits China

On May 14th, President Donald Trump traveled to China, which was the first time he set foot in the country since his visit in 2017. In case you’ve been living under a bridge like a rogue crackhead, shit is pretty fucked up in the Middle East. 

China is pissed because they rely on Iran’s oil. The U.S. is pissed because China is funding Iran, which the U.S. is trying to topple. And the rest of the world is pissed because gas prices are going up, and they have almost no leverage in the ongoing conflict. The goals of the meeting were straightforward: the U.S. wants China’s help in negotiating with Iran. And China wants to settle this oil crisis without completely aligning with the U.S. 

We could go deeper into how China and the U.S. negotiated, but what we thought was a more interesting topic is how the 2 largest economic powerhouses in the world differ in terms of long-term strategic planning. 

Although the U.S. and China may be very different, what they have in common is a meteoric rise to global superpower status faster than any other country ever. But what’s fascinating is that they each rose to power in completely unique ways. 

Let’s start with China. 

The rise of China in the last 40 years is nothing short of astounding. In 1981, almost 90% of China's population faced extreme poverty. By 2022, they had reduced that number to effectively 0%. This was only possible because of the main reason China differs from the U.S. - a top-down centralized control strategy. The Chinese government controls everything. 

I mean everything literally. They own the banks, companies, land, natural resources, and media. When they decide they want to do something, they have complete control over execution. Let’s use a real example. China wanted to become the best in the world at producing electric vehicle batteries. They control the research institutions, so they tell researchers this is all you’re researching. They control the companies, so they said you’re going to copy the best U.S. technology and make 10x as many batteries. This worked, and now they produce 70% of all EV batteries. 

They can and do apply this strategy to everything. Do you want new roads or a super highway? You don’t have to vote on budget allocation and get the people’s buy-in. You act, and you act immediately. 

This allows for unbelievable rapid expansion. But this strategy comes with two major weaknesses, which happen to be the United States two biggest strengths. 

1. A top strategy means that if the brain at the top makes a mistake, there are no checks and balances. That mistake can trickle down to every facet of government and industry. 

2. It stifles innovation and creativity. Without freedom, people don’t innovate; they do what they’re told. The best minds in China have to fear retaliation and failure. When you’re told “build the best nuclear power plants”, you simply copy someone else and do it quickly. Innovation takes time and is risky. When a black van can take you to a slave dungeon in China, you don’t take risks. 

Now let’s talk about the U.S. 

What makes China weak is what built the U.S. into a superpower. Those two things are adaptability and innovation. Yes, it may feel like we have a supreme leader who is either a demented, woke elderly man or a racist elderly man, but our power is at its core decentralized. Each branch of government holds the other branches of government in check and wields incredible power in its specific domain. 

The U.S. government is structured to provide maximum freedom to its citizens. This, despite some shortcomings, is an undeniable fact. You can do whatever the fuck you want in America. 

You want to drink 20 beers a day, balloon up to 400 pounds, and watch Nascar? You can. But if you want to build super drones that can shoot lasers from space? The government or some rich private entity will give you the resources to build whatever YOU want. Not what they want, what you want. 

America is the easiest place in the world to start a company and acquire unbelievable wealth. This means that our private sector is full of powerful private citizens who become assets to the United States regime. 

On the surface, it may seem like a flaw that the U.S. government can’t tell a company like Nvidia what to do or what to build, but this is actually a blessing. It means that Nvidia builds products and innovates not out of fear or loyalty, but out of EGO and selfishness. These are the two purest motivators in the world, and lead to true innovation. 

But this is where it’s important to point out America’s weaknesses. 

1. Freedom comes at the price of being incredibly slow. To make changes, you have to get buy-in and public support. This is incredibly challenging and means that changing regulations can take decades. 

2. Power eventually consolidates. Being free means that Blackstone can buy up 100,000 homes in America, which is obviously a net negative to most common citizens. Sure, there are plenty of people in the government against this, but it takes time to put an end to bad behavior. 

Say what you will about China and America, but I have a lot of respect for both of them. It’s going to be incredibly interesting to see how the power struggle between these two superpowers unfolds. 

And if China happens to win the power struggle, I just want to make one thing very clear. I don’t recognize Taiwan. 

Work For Jabroni Capital

We’re hiring a writer for our content agency. This is a great opportunity, considering there are like 15 companies hiring in the continental U.S. right now. Somehow, we’re one of them.

What you’ll do:

• Write viral X posts for businesses

• Make or source funny memes

• Learn about cool industries

• Help run client calls (bonus points if you make fun of me in front of clients)

Who you are:

• You still know how to write and aren’t ChatGPT-brained (we can tell immediately if you are)

• You have a sense of humor

• You have made viral content for yourself or other clients

• You understand how to write hooks and structure posts for X

• You love making content & are obsessed with getting better at it

If this sounds like a role you would be good at, apply below:

If you refer 5 people to Jabroni Capital, I’ll write you an unhinged LinkedIn recommendation and feature it in the newsletter.

Memes

This guy is dishing out wisdom for free.

Follow me for more advice.

This is a top-tier meme.

Song of the Day

This past weekend, I went to Miami to dance and see a DJ with my best friends. Now, I’ll be honest, I don’t normally like EDM music. But when the DJ played a remix of this throwback pop song from 2009, I felt like I was teleported back to my childhood.

Listen to the full Jabroni Capital playlist here.

Newsletter Feedback

I’d love your feedback on what sort of content you’d like to see or how you think I could improve :)

That’s all for this week folks,

Jack Kuveke (J.K.) | GP @ Jabroni Capital