Postcards: Mark It "Zero"... The Roof of the World... and the Week Ahead

Bowlero will report earnings this week... setting up a chance for hilarity. Meanwhile, the U.S. needs to start producing icebreakers, unless they want China to become its neighbor somewhere north.

Dear Fellow Expat:

Let’s pick up where we left off last Friday.

Russia is working overtime to pump crude oil and natural out of ports in the Arctic Circle.

It’s a workaround as Western sanctions crank down on Russia and its energy firms and politicians in Moscow.

Think of it as Prohibition…

But to get around an alcohol ban, a bar has converted its upstairs into a bakery – but still sells booze through hoses in the basement to another building – where it’s sold out the back allies to willing drunkards.

China will take all the Russian oil it can get.

India too.

As I explained last weekend, Russia is drastically increasing Arctic-borne shipments across the Northern passage to China. But they’re also getting more ambitious. News emerged last week that Russia sent a tanker around the Norwegian Sea and the coast of Ireland to Brazil. (They’re also selling natural gas 50% off)

To expedite those shipments, Russia has increased its fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers to boost these Arctic shipments.

Ch…