Imagine getting woken up before dawn, loaded onto a truck, and driven for two hours down a bumpy gravel road with no idea where you are going or what you are about to do. Now imagine being told, once you arrive, that your job today is to murder 1,500 people.
January 2008. Birkenfeld was back in Geneva, breathing cold Alpine air and trying to enjoy his freedom. He had given everything to the US Senate, the IRS, and the SEC. They were grateful. But the DOJ prosecutor Kevin Downing? He still wanted Birkenfeld’s head on a plate. This is Chapter 10 of my Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored retelling.
In 2017, cobalt went from $25,000 to $100,000 per ton. Quadrupled in a single year. Not because someone cornered the market or because a mine collapsed. It happened because the world suddenly realized that electric cars need batteries, and batteries need metals. Lots of metals. Chapter 41 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of how Tesla, Elon Musk, and the EV boom turned obscure industrial metals into the hottest commodities on the planet.
In 2017, cobalt went from $25,000 to $100,000 per ton. Quadrupled in a single year. Not because someone cornered the market or because a mine collapsed. It happened because the world suddenly realized that electric cars need batteries, and batteries need metals. Lots of metals. Chapter 41 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of how Tesla, Elon Musk, and the EV boom turned obscure industrial metals into the hottest commodities on the planet.
What happens when normal, everyday people are put into extraordinary circumstances? Not soldiers. Not fanatics. Just regular middle-aged guys from Hamburg with families and day jobs.
The grenade was out of the bag. This is the second half of Chapter 9 in my Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored retelling series.
In February 2016, a barrel of WTI crude oil cost less than $26. That was the lowest price since 2003. Just 18 months earlier, the same barrel was selling for $110. A 76% drop. Chapter 40 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of how the world literally ran out of places to store all the oil it was pumping, and what happened when OPEC and Russia finally decided to do something about it.
In February 2016, a barrel of WTI crude oil cost less than $26. That was the lowest price since 2003. Just 18 months earlier, the same barrel was selling for $110. A 76% drop. Chapter 40 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of how the world literally ran out of places to store all the oil it was pumping, and what happened when OPEC and Russia finally decided to do something about it.
The fake Jafarli letter broke something inside Birkenfeld. His own government had betrayed him. The DOJ had tailed him to Mexico, pulled his friend off a plane, stolen the guy’s identity, and used it to try to scare him into silence. He grew up believing in the Constitution and fair trials. Now he felt like a mob informant who accidentally confessed to a dirty cop.
Your phone has rare earths in it. Your laptop has them. If you drive a hybrid or electric car, it is full of them. Wind turbines need them. Flat screens need them. Pretty much every piece of modern technology needs a tiny bit of these 17 metals that most people have never heard of. Chapter 39 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” (ISBN: 978-1-63299-227-7) tells the story of what happened when one country controlled almost all of the supply and decided to squeeze.