Capital Controls—Not Tariffs—Will Force China-US Economic Divorce: Arthur Hayes Drops Hard Truth

Forget trade wars—the real economic uncoupling begins when capital gets locked down. Arthur Hayes, ever the provocateur, cuts through the noise with a prediction that stings like a margin call.

Why tariffs are just theater: They grab headlines but don’t stop money flows. Capital controls? That’s the silent kill switch for globalization.

The crypto wildcard: Digital assets could bypass Beijing’s firewall—or get crushed in the crossfire. Either way, Wall Street’s ‘China playbook’ is about to get shredded.

Closing jab: Watch hedge funds suddenly ‘discover geopolitics’ when their offshore yuan trades get frozen. Nothing sharpens analysis like a frozen bank account.

Texas bill targets “hostile nations”

The SB 17 bill WOULD reportedly prevent citizens, companies, and governments from four countries, deemed “hostile” in US federal threat assessments, from purchasing any “real property” in Texas.

The bill grants Texas Governor Greg Abbott the power to expand the list to additional countries unilaterally, while enforcement would fall to the state attorney general. Violations could carry civil penalties of $250,000 or more. The legislation applies to future purchases and does not retroactively affect land already owned by foreign nationals.

State Representative Cole Hefner, one of the bill’s main sponsors, said the law is about “securing Texas land and natural resources from adversarial nations and oppressive regimes that wish to do us harm.”

However, in a House debate held on the day of the vote, Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston and critic of the measure, asserted that without clearer language, the bill could affect thousands of foreign nationals working and studying legally in Texas on H-1B and student visas.

Democrats bash GOP lawmakers for passing “racist” law

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Austin over the weekend, denouncing the bill as racist and xenophobic. “Stop the hate” and “housing is a human right” were among the slogans seen on placards. 

Alice Yi, co-founder of Asian Texans for Justice, called the bill a direct attack on immigrants based on national origin. “This is a racist bill,” she propounded.

State Rep. Wes Virdell, a GOP lawmaker from west of San Antonio, voted “present” and lambasted the legislation for failing to achieve its original goal. “The intent was to prevent hostile countries from buying up large plats of land,” he said, but cautioned the law “entangles everyday people” and hands excessive power to the executive branch.

Meanwhile, State Rep. RAY Lopez, a Democrat from San Antonio, withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill after his requests for scaling back on certain provisions and an appeals process were denied. 

“I get what the bill authors are trying to do,” Lopez surmised, “but if you took out ‘Chinese Americans’ and you were talking about ‘Mexican Americans,’ that would make me feel terrible. It’s discriminatory, man.”

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