China sets the price of oil: it buys as much as possible at $65/barrel (the floor) and stops buying at $100/barrel (the ceiling), effectively capping the global oil price trading band, making $65-100 the range within which most countries can function, with $70 approximately the sweet spot for the U.S. and countries above $100 experiencing real economic pain.

The private markets industry grew from $1 trillion to $15 trillion over 20 years partly on promises of high double-digit returns with low volatility, but these promises have largely not been met by the large majority of the $15 trillion raised, partly because scaling these strategies to enormous asset bases typically results in lower returns.

Korean investors represent some of the most aggressive growth investors globally, were among the largest investors in Cathie Wood's ARC ETFs, and are heavy purchasers of NASDAQ-100 exposure through Invesco, showing high risk appetite for growth assets.

Russia is the main actor pushing for oil price destabilization and higher prices (it needs >$80/barrel to fund its budget), while China stabilizes prices; this is a fundamental difference in their geopolitical objectives.