High technology, low carbon and security in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan

Jorge Costa Oliveira These days, Beijing is hosting the “Two Sessions” (the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), where the most important event

The AI financial Ouroboros

Jorge Costa Oliveira Last Friday, OpenAI announced it had raised $110 billion in its latest funding round; Amazon invested $50 billion, Nvidia $30 billion and SoftBank $30

The SaaSpocalypse of February 2026

Jorge Costa Oliveira In the first six weeks of 2026, the S&P 500 Software & Services Index saw nearly $1 trillion in market value evaporate. On February

The inevitable proliferation of nuclear weapons

Jorge Costa Oliveira Last Thursday marked the expiration of New START, the last remaining bilateral agreement – between Russia, with 5,459 nuclear warheads, and the United States,

Tesla and the promise of Radiant Tomorrows

Jorge Costa Oliveira Tesla’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio currently stands at around 283.5 (380, according to Gemini, and 400, according to MarketWatch) – far higher than that of

Sell US Treasury Bonds!

Jorge Costa Oliveira Donald Trump’s continued insistence that the United States should annex Greenland triggered a strong condemnation from European governments. Trump responded by threatening to impose additional tariffs

The miraculous AGI

Jorge Costa Oliveira Artificial general intelligence (AGI) – which can be understood as the point at which a machine is capable of performing any intellectual task a

What if AI doesn’t generate profits?

Jorge Costa Oliveira In a recent article, we saw how excessive debt, when not matched by an adequate equity ratio or by income generated within the timeframe

Selling Ukraine for a handful of rubles

Jorge Costa Oliveira Several newspapers report that U.S. companies and investors with close ties to Donald Trump have already begun negotiations to acquire assets or jointly exploit

The (dis)advantages of data centers

Jorge Costa Oliveira Over the past decade, we have seen rapid growth in data centers – whether for cloud data storage, cryptocurrency mining, or the development of

Pessimism forbidden

Jorge Costa Oliveira In most countries, posting “life is crap” on social media gets you a sympathy emoji or, at worst, silence. In China, it can now

The privatization of political power in the United States

Jorge Costa Oliveira The significant influence that major corporations exert on American politics is well known, from funding extremely expensive electoral campaigns to spending fortunes on lobbying

Current AI risks

Jorge Costa Oliveira Beyond the future risks associated with general artificial intelligence (AI) and superintelligent AIs, there are current threats that are seldom discussed — yet deserve to

Not just rare earths

Jorge Costa Oliveira Since 2015, when China approved its industrial policy program “Made in China 2025,” Beijing’s ultimate goal has been to reduce the country’s dependence on

Consequences of China’s population decline

Jorge Costa Oliveira China’s population began to shrink in 2022. The UN’s projections – revised several times, the last one in 2024 – point to a gradual decline to 633

Technological evolution doesn’t bring only benefits

Jorge Costa Oliveira When discussing the enormous potential arising from today’s technological advances – especially artificial intelligence (AI) – it’s common to draw comparisons with earlier moments

Artificial General Intelligence by 2040?

Jorge Costa Oliveira Despite the tendency to designate everything that is technologically advanced as AI, there are still only a few cases of true AI (i.e., autonomous

From Deep Blue to AlphaZero

Jorge Costa Oliveira “Go” (in Chinese, wéiqí) is a two-player board game invented in China more than 2,500 years ago. The objective is to surround more territory

Is AI really going to eliminate many jobs?

Jorge Costa Oliveira A Gallup survey (June 2025) shows an increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, though it concludes that workers

We should fear general AI and, above all, superintelligence

Jorge Costa Oliveira In the coming years, we should witness the emergence of numerous artificial intelligence (AI) agents designed for specific tasks or areas – IT/programming, healthcare,

State capitalism with American characteristics

Jorge Costa Oliveira In the current Trump 2.0 administration, beyond the usual fiscal and budgetary measures, economic stimulus packages, and regulatory agencies in sectors such as finance,

Major changes in the world’s population through 2100

Jorge Costa Oliveira The highly regarded Pew Research Center recently released a concise analysis of projections for some of the major changes in the world’s population

To regulate or not to regulate AI

Jorge Costa Oliveira There is no doubt that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionize industries, supercharge scientific research, and make many aspects of life and work more efficient.

A world of Tyrrel Corporations?

Jorge Costa Oliveira In Today, environmental degradation is still far from an ecocide of that scale, although much remains to be done to preserve biodiversity and prevent the destruction of

The ‘big, beautiful’ Trumpist swamp

Presenting himself as an outsider challenging the political establishment, Trump set out to “drain the swamp” . In Trump’s first administration (2017–2021), there was no swamp-draining whatsoever.

The US–EU trade pre-deal and the law of the jungle

International trade law is governed by global multilateral agreements under the WTO and a multitude of regional multilateral agreements (EU, USMCA, Mercosur, AFTA, CPTPP, CIS, AfCFTA, TiSA) and bilateral

Another Trump venture – trading in pardons

Under Presidents Obama and Biden, commutations of sentence far outnumbered pardons – 1,715 to 212 under Obama, 4,165 to 80 under Biden – and both administrations followed formal guidelines laid

The United States on the road to fascism

To compare with what’s currently happening in the U.S., I asked an AI bot to list the typical characteristics of fascist political regimes. Here is the response, with my commentary

Who will buy $9 trillion in US Treasury Bonds?

For decades, U.S. federal governments have grown accustomed to operating with recurring budget deficits, expanding public debt from $7 trillion in 2000 to $36 trillion in 2024. This increase occurred under

Orwellian Newspeak in Trump’s rhetoric

Trump’s increasingly authoritarian trajectory has sparked fears of a drift toward a society resembling the one depicted by G. Orwell in “1984.” One of the core pillars

The unexpected rise in Chinese investment in Europe

A recent report by the Rhodium Group and MERICS states that, for the first time since 2016, Chinese outbound foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the EU and the

Portugal-China relations on the 25th anniversary of Macau’s handover

The transition of Macau to Chinese sovereignty was a success because both parties worked diligently to achieve it. The Chinese State-Party elite aimed for a “smooth

Assassination of Indian opponents abroad and red lines

According to a recent edition of The Economist, “in a press conference held on October 14th Mike Duheme, the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, accused India’s

Being green like Norway

Like other European countries, Norway has adopted a strategy for a low-carbon economy by 2050, with emission reduction targets that are even more ambitious than those of the

Southeast Asia will be the next ‘factory of the world’

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China declined after Q2 2022. This drop in FDI is part of a broader global trend of decreasing investment flows and is likely

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