China’s Shadow Economy, PFAS Rollbacks & AI IP Wars

Nov 18, 2025

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China leads U.S. sanctions evasion for Russia, Iran & North Korea, with Hong Kong as the shadow economy hub. Google sues a China-based phishing network. AI IP battles rage, $3.8T M&A booms, and EPA plans controversial PFAS forever chemicals rollback in 2025.

🎯 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

How China is enabling sanctions evasion for Russia, Iran, and North Korea and why Hong Kong is central to the workaround economy.
Why Google is suing a China-based phishing network tied to toll-booth SMS scams hitting more than a million victims.
How Common Crawl, AI scraping practices, and the New York Times lawsuit signal a major IP showdown in AI.
Why Nvidia is pushing small-scale language models and what this means for efficiency and compute strategy.
How potential PFAS rule rollbacks could disrupt national environmental protections.
Why Goldman Sachs is dominating a $3.8T M&A market and what new Philadelphia Fed data shows about consumer credit and delinquencies.

🔍 TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro — Geopolitics, Cyber Crime, AI & Markets

00:24 China Sanctions Evasion — Shadow Fleet, Dual-Use Tech, HK Finance

01:47 North Korean Cybercrime Through Chinese Networks

02:09 Google Sues Lighthouse — Global Phishing & RICO Claims

03:48 AI Scraping, Common Crawl & NYT Copyright Fight

05:43 Nvidia’s Small-Model Strategy & H100 Efficiency

06:52 PFAS Rollback Risk — Science vs Regulation

08:13 M&A Snapshot — Goldman Sachs’ Record Market Share

09:05 Sector Trends — Tech, Healthcare, Finance

10:11 Philadelphia Fed — Credit, Spending & Delinquencies

11:14 Takeaway — Strategic Outlook for Stakeholders