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In the global banking world, a week that began with high anxiety is ending in both relief and trepidation.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assured lawmakers during testimony on Thursday that the U.S. banking system “remains sound,” even as tough questions remain about banking supervision and problems that may yet be undetected, perhaps on the credit side of banking ledgers, some analysts have suggested.

A group of 11 major banks agreed on Thursday to deposit a combined $30 billion in San Francisco’s First Republic Bank to rescue it from liquidity problems. The bank has the third-highest rate of uninsured U.S. deposits (The Hill). Some experts do not think the groups’ plan will completely put to rest emerging questions about the banking system (The Wall Street Journal), but the goal was to demonstrate private sector confidence in the smaller, struggling bank and allow depositors to withdraw funds seamlessly, if they chose, as The New York Times describes in a dissection of how the plan came together in 48 hours.

Credit Suisse based in Zurich received a $54 billion lifeline on Wednesday from Switzerland’s Central Bank to forestall possible panic that analysts worried might cause a run on banks in Europe and elsewhere. And depositors in collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank on Monday were able to access 100 percent of their funds no matter how much they’d insured, thanks to the intervention of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Treasury Department.

The upshot: Bank stocks began to recover on Thursday, a sign of stabilizing confidence (NBC News).

Although Yellen sought to reassure the Senate Finance Committee, she acknowledged that authorities stepped in to backstop even uninsured deposits at insolvent Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank due to the threat of “systemic risk” — the possibility of unstoppable contagion and panic — that merited exceptions to the FDIC’s $250,000 cap on federally insured deposits. A reported 94 percent of SVB’s deposit accounts were above the FDIC limit.

Is that exception now the norm for everyone? Should it be? A bank “only gets that treatment” if regulators determine it meets certain criteria, Yellen told Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). As a result, depositors at other banks may not be guaranteed similar protections (CNBC). To merit that exception requires a two-thirds majority vote of the boards of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Treasury secretary in consultation with the president (NBC News).    

Yellen said inflation remains the administration’s top economic concern even as prices have fallen slightly. February’s 6 percent level is still well above the central bank’s 2 percent target. The Fed had been expected, before the emergence of stressed and failing banks, to continue its assertive strategy of higher interest rates in order to slow the economy and bring down prices.

Fed watchers and market analysts are of mixed minds about whether the Federal Open Market Committee, which meets next week, should continue raising rates in March or pause for a time to assess economic and financial data.

“They should definitely pause,” Joe LaVorgna, chief economist with SMBC Nikko Securities America Inc., told CNBC when asked Tuesday what the Fed should do next. “Right now, what’s happening is these small- and medium-sized banks are scrambling for deposits. Wait. See if things evolve. … Go five weeks. See what happens. You can reevaluate in May.”

Related Articles

▪ CNBC: One year after the first rate hike, the Fed stands at a policy crossroads. 

▪ MarketPlace: “Financial conditions” are closely watched by the Fed — and at the moment, very complicated.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Why top Washington officials chose to rescue SVB and Signature Bank depositors. 

▪ CNBC: Credit Suisse this morning London time shed another 5 percent as traders digest emergency liquidity.

▪ The New York Times: The European Central Bank on Thursday raised interest rates half a point, becoming the first major central bank to set monetary policy amid banking worries that gripped markets this week.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ ADMINISTRATION

The Monday approval of a massive oil-drilling project in Alaska has put Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a difficult position, The Hill’s Zack Budryk writes, pitting her against many of the environmental groups that saw her as a top ally and underlining the White House’s ultimate authority. 

Haaland has also been in the news this week after signaling her support for a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The road has been at the center of a decades-long battle between the largely Indigenous people of King Cove — who say it will provide lifesaving access to a Cold Bay runway — and environmental groups who say a road will harm the refuge. At the same time, the administration said it is withdrawing a land-swap deal that would have allowed the road, after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided in November with environmental groups. Haaland said that rather than continue the legal battle, she would launch a review process to examine different options for a land swap that would be needed to construct a road between the two communities. 

“This decision does not foreclose further consideration of a land exchange to address the community’s concerns, although such an exchange would likely be with different terms and conditions,” a brief by the Interior Department states, adding that the Trump-era deal was made with procedural flaws and did not assess how a road could damage locals’ subsistence lifestyle and the region’s natural habitat (The Anchorage Daily News and The Washington Post). 

CNN: Biden is expected to designate Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada as the largest national monument of his presidency next week. The president previously announced his commitment to protecting the area, which is a sacred site for Fort Mojave and other Native American tribal nations.

The Biden administration is ramping up pressure against the popular video sharing app TikTok, threatening to ban the app if the Chinese-based ByteDance doesn’t sell its stakes. As The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare report, the demand, confirmed by TikTok late Wednesday, marks the latest escalation in U.S. governmental pressure over the app over potential security risks critics on both sides have raised based on the app’s ties to China. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is scheduled to testify before a House panel next week, said divesting wouldn’t solve any security concerns, and the company has doubled down on its ongoing plans to monitor and separately store U.S. user data instead.  

▪ The Washington Post: Governments around the world have moved to ban or restrict TikTok amid security fears.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: TikTok CEO’s message to Washington: A sale won’t solve security concerns.

▪ The New York Times: TikTok could be a hard sell to potential buyers.

🏀 Biden unveiled his March Madness bracket on Thursday as Vice President Harris rooted for Howard University, her alma mater, against the University of Kansas during a first-round NCAA men’s basketball game while she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were in Des Moines, Iowa (ESPN and The Hill). The president’s bracket was promptly busted when the University of Arizona went down to an underdog Princeton team (The Hill).

➤ POLITICS 

Democrats in Republican-leaning Louisiana are trying to buck expectations for a third consecutive cycle in this year’s open gubernatorial race as term-limited Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) prepares to leave office, writes The Hill’s Amee LaTour. A divided Republican field is raising Democrats’ hopes of clearing the all-party primary on Oct. 14 and making it to the November general election, but they acknowledge they face several challenges to maintaining the governorship. 

“I don’t think anyone thinks that it’s going to be an easy task,” said Richard Carbo, Edwards’s former deputy chief of staff and 2019 campaign manager. “[Y]ou just have the headwinds of national politics and the Republican leaning of the state that are working against you. But … the governor showed how to defy those odds[.]” 

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are dialing up the pressure on Biden on Social Security, writes The Hill’s Aris Folley, as the White House keeps up attacks on the party over proposed reforms to the program. 

The Senate on Thursday advanced a bill to repeal the authorizations for use of military force (AUMFs) for the Iraq and Gulf wars, from 2002 and 1991, respectively. The bill advanced in a 68-27 procedural vote, surpassing the 60 votes needed to proceed. A final vote could happen as soon as next week “to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war. The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Young said the repeal would “arrest the trend of giving away our war powers to an unchecked executive” (The Hill). 

Heading into 2024, former President Trump and his allies believe they have found a weak spot on which to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): opportunism. Trump has hit the Florida governor, who is widely expected to run for president, on his past stances on Ukraine, Social Security and ethanol. DeSantis has become more isolationist on Ukraine than he was when Russia annexed Crimea during the Obama presidency, and while in Congress, he voted for a nonbinding measure that would have raised the retirement age to 70. 

As The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in The Memo, the question remains whether these attacks will undercut DeSantis’s image as a fiercely conservative figure, or whether GOP primary voters will be willing to overlook past inconsistencies so long as the Florida governor is now aligned with their views. 

The Hill: DeSantis says he prevented “Faucian dystopia” with Florida’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decision Watch Calendar (🌸 spring officially begins on Monday):  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says he will decide if he’ll be a 2024 presidential candidate in 45 to 60 days (The Washington Examiner).  DeSantis has said he’ll decide at some point after the Florida legislative session adjourns on May 5 (The Hill). New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has said he’ll decide whether to run, as he predicts other potential candidates will, “by this summer” (PBS). Former Vice President Mike Pence said last month that he would decide “by the spring” (NBC News). “I’m confident that we’ll have better choices than my old running mate come 2024,” he added. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has no firm timeline for a potential campaign announcement while he’s on a “listening tour” of the country into the spring (The Hill).

In Oklahoma, the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City has created a schism in the charter school movement with its application for the nation’s first openly religious charter school. The Hill’s Lexi Lonas reports that activists and policy experts supportive of charter schools, in general, are divided over the virtual religious charter application currently under consideration by the Oklahoma charter school board, with a meeting on the subject set for Tuesday. Charter school advocates have struggled for years to convince skeptics that the privately run, publicly paid-for institutions are equivalent to government-run schools. 

“We don’t think that you can have a religious charter school in place because charter schools are public schools and public schools cannot teach religion,” Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, told The Hill this week. “So right now, as public schools, this is not a door that can be opened.”

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL 

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long sought to raise his country’s retirement age from 62 to 64 despite intense public opposition and recent strikes, raised the pension age on Thursday with an executive decision that did not go to a parliamentary vote. Macron triggered Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which grants the government executive privilege to push through controversial pension reforms without a parliamentary vote. However, the move gives the opposition the right to immediately call a confidence vote and risks further inflaming the protest movement after months of demonstrations across the country, where the issue is seen as especially controversial (France 24).

“This reform has all the ingredients to boost votes for parties on the radical right,” Bruno Palier, a political scientist at French university Sciences-Po, told Reuters.

CNN: Protests erupt as French government forces through higher retirement age.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Russia next week to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin, the two countries said on Friday, as Beijing touts a plan to end the Ukraine war that has received a lukewarm welcome on both sides. Xi’s Monday to Wednesday trip comes after China in February published a 12-point plan for “a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis” (Reuters).

Breaking with other NATO members, Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday announced his country will transfer four of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days and plans to send others as well. This makes Poland the first country to offer jets to Kyiv, to help further prevent Russia from securing air superiority over Ukraine. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Poland’s decision did not change the Biden administration’s position on supplying Ukraine with aircraft (Axios and The New York Times).

“It doesn’t change our calculus with regard to the F-16,” Kirby told reporters Thursday. “It’s not on the table right now.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile alluded to the heavy costs of U.S. fighter jets speaking to reporters on a visit to Niger (Al Jazeera).

“I think it’s a mistake to get focused on any particular weapons system at any given time,” Blinken. “Individual partner countries will, again, make their own decisions about what they can provide, when they can provide it, and how they provide it.”

▪ The Hill: What to know about the United Nations report outlining Russian war crimes.

▪ The New York Times: Ukraine burns through ammunition in Bakhmut, risking future fights.

▪ CNN: Chinese-made drone, retrofitted and weaponized, downed in eastern Ukraine.

Japan and South Korea on Thursday took cautious steps to repair their years-long rocky relationship when the leaders of the two countries met in Tokyo for their first summit in 12 years. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the prime minister’s official residence, kicking off a trip aimed at demonstrating that the countries want to work more closely together and with the U.S. to counter the looming geopolitical, economic and military threats posed by China and North Korea. Still, questions remain about whether the countries can move past thorny issues stemming from Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula in the 20th century (The Washington Post).

“It was a big step toward normalizing Japan-Korea relations,” Kishida said after the meeting, adding that he wanted to open a “new chapter.”

▪ South China Morning Post: How better South Korea-Japan ties could weaken a China-centric supply chain.

▪ Nikkei Asia: Japan lifts chipmaking export controls on South Korea.

▪ CBS News: North Korea launches intercontinental ballistic missile ahead of South Korea-Japan summit. 

▪ Deutsche Welle: German chancellor visits Japan to ramp up security ties.

OPINION

■ Social Security needs fixing. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be painful, by The Washington Post editorial board. https://wapo.st/3Fxf8j7 

■ Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act, our fight against extinctions is only beginning, by Robin Ganzert and Jon Paul Rodríguez, opinion contributors, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3TmpxDS

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 11 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate meets at 8:45 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden will welcome Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach of Ireland, to the White House at 10:30 a.m. for a bilateral meeting. Biden will head to the Capitol for the Friends of Ireland Caucus St. Patrick’s Day luncheon at noon. The president will host Varadkar for a White House reception at 5 p.m. Biden will depart the White House for Delaware at 7:35 p.m.

Vice President Harris at 8:30 a.m. will host Taoiseach Varadkar for breakfast at the Naval Observatory along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff and visiting guest and Varadkar’s partner, Matthew Barrett. Harris and Emhoff will attend the 5 p.m. shamrock presentation and reception in honor of Varadkar in the East Room. 

The secretary of State concludes travel to Niger and returns to Washington.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will travel to Chicago to tour Tablets Pharmacy at 9:30 a.m. local time to speak about administration efforts to lower prescription drug prices, including insulin. He’ll be accompanied by Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) and local leaders. Becerra and Jackson at 11 a.m. will visit Kennedy-King College to participate in a roundtable discussion about mental health and the national crisis of substance abuse.  

Economic indicator: The University of Michigan will report at 10 a.m. on U.S. consumer sentiment, drawing on preliminary data for March.

ELSEWHERE

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC 

Pregnancy deaths surged to the highest rate in nearly 60 years, new data shows, exacerbating a years-long trend that has made the U.S. the most high-risk place among wealthy countries to give birth. The National Center for Health Statistics said Thursday that the number of people who died during pregnancy or shortly after rose 40 percent to 1,205 in 2021. The increase pushed the maternal mortality rate to 33 deaths per 100,000 live births, the highest since 1965. The racial disparities in the data are stark; the maternal mortality rate among Black women rose to 2.6 times the rate among white women in 2021. 

A separate report by the Government Accountability Office has cited COVID-19 as a contributing factor in at least 400 maternal deaths in 2021, accounting for much of the increase (The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times). Officials say the 2022 maternal death rate — there were 733 maternal deaths, according to preliminary data, though the final number is likely to be higher — is on track to get close to pre-pandemic levels. But those numbers aren’t great: The rate before COVID-19 was the highest it had been in decades (CBS News). 

“From the worst to the near worst? I wouldn’t exactly call that an accomplishment,” Omari Maynard, whose partner died after childbirth in 2019, told CBS News.

▪ CNN: The maternal death rate rose sharply in 2021, and experts worry the problem is getting worse.

▪ The Hill: Coverage gains for Black and Hispanic people during pandemic could be lost with end of public health emergency.

▪ The Atlantic: The rogue theory that gravity causes irritable bowel syndrome. 

▪ CNN: Just 39 minutes of lost sleep could impact your child’s health, study shows.

👉 A third insulin drug company, French drugmaker Sanofi, on Thursday said it will cap the out-of-pocket cost of its popular insulin drug called Lantus at $35 per month for people with private insurance. The change will take effect Jan. 1, 2024. Sanofi follows in the price-cutting footsteps of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. The three companies make up about 90 percent of the insulin market in the United States (NBC News).

The Atlantic: This week, an international team of virologists, genomicists and evolutionary biologists may have found crucial data from genetic samples, which appear to link the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs that were illegally sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.

The World Health Organization on Thursday released its 28-day COVID-19 update through March 12, finding nearly 4.1 million new cases of COVID-19 globally (a decrease of 40 percent since Feb. 13) and 28,000 reported deaths from the virus in the same period, a drop of 57 percent compared with the previous 28 days. In total since the outset of the pandemic through March 12, more than 6.8 million people around the world who contracted COVID-19 died as a result, according to WHO.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov. 

Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 1,706 for the most recent week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Data is reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏🍀👏 Applause, applause for this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Happy St. Patrick’s Day, which we’re celebrating with a puzzle. 

Here’s who aced some Irish-themed trivia: Catherine Hicks, Luther Berg, Tim Bazanec, Richard Fanning, William D. Moore, Bill Grieshober, Jaina Mehta, Randall S. Patrick, Pam Manges, Mary Anne McEnery, Paul Harris, Richard E. Baznik, Ki Harvey, Patrick Kavanagh, Terry Pflaumer, Robert Bradley and Steve James. 

They knew that during Biden’s upcoming visit to Northern Ireland, he will mark the anniversary of the April 10, 1998, signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Delia Barry, an 83-year-old Irish widow, is a social media celebrity after she created 1920s-style hand-knit sweaters used to costume stars in this year’s Oscar-nominated film “The Banshees of Inisherin.” 

The New York Times on Wednesday published an Irish-themed recipe for colcannon, or mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage, a dish that likely started its historic life as cál ceannann in Gaelic.

St. Patrick’s Day blarney begins with St. Patrick, a priest who was not an officially canonized saint. He never rid Ireland of snakes (or pagans) and started life as Maewyn Succat. Thus, the answer we were looking for was “all of the above.” Senate votes to advance bill to repeal Iraq war authorizations Republicans aim to boost oil, gas in energy package

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Crypto influencers are replacing VCs, and that’s a good thing

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Crypto influencers are replacing VCs, and that’s a good thing

Crypto influencers are replacing VCs, and that’s a good thing

Crypto influencers democratize early-stage investing by offering transparent, accessible opportunities that VCs keep behind closed doors for the elite.

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Kingbull Jumper Go: The versatile, high-speed eBike built for any terrain

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Kingbull Jumper Go: The versatile, high-speed eBike built for any terrain

The eBike space is crowded in 2025, but the Kingbull Jumper Go stands out with a rare combination of features: a compact 20” frame, full suspension, a step-through design, and a powerful Class 3 motor capable of hitting high speeds. Whether you’re commuting through the city, riding off-road trails, or just looking for a versatile, approachable ride, the Jumper Go delivers serious performance, especially for the price.

Key specs

On paper, the Kingbull Jumper Go has all the hardware you would want and need for its size and price. It blends commuter-friendly features with the components you’d expect from more premium off-road eBikes. These specs on paper translate to real-world use amazingly. Here’s a quick rundown of the key specs:

  • Motor: 750W Bafang rear hub motor
  • Top Speed: 28 MPH with pedal assist (up to 40 MPH unlocked; check local laws)
  • Battery: 48V 20Ah Samsung removable battery
  • Max Range: Up to 80 miles per charge
  • Gearing: Shimano 8-speed drivetrain
  • Brakes: Tektro hydraulic disc brakes
  • Suspension: Front 80mm fork + rear mid-frame air shock
  • Tires: 20” x 4.0” Kenda fat tires (puncture-resistant)
  • Frame: Step-through aluminum frame with internal cable routing
  • Display: Integrated LED display with speed, assist level, and battery status
  • Lighting: Integrated 48V headlight and rear brake light
  • Included Accessories: Rear cargo rack, full fenders, mini tool kit, zip ties, tire pump

Together, these features make the Kingbull Jumper Go a rare all-in-one package: powerful, approachable, and ready to handle daily commutes and adventures without compromise.

Real-world experience

I have been living with the Kingbull Jumper Go for two weeks now and have been using it as my daily driver. I have used it for pretty much everything, from small grocery runs, to running a quick errand, to just taking me from place to place. Here is what you need to know.

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The setup

The setup was surprisingly simple. The bike has everything needed for assembly, including a mini tool kit, zip ties, and even a tire pump. The Kingbull Jumper Go comes about 80% pre-assembled, with the rear tire and monitor intact. I had to install the front tire, front fender, handlebar, headlight, and seat. Assembly took roughly 20 minutes, and I am someone who does not do this often. It was great that I did not need any of my own tools to get the bike ready. The final thing I did was ensure it was fully charged before getting on it.

The ride

On the road, the 750W motor gives you quick acceleration and plenty of torque, easily handling hills and the urban terrain I live in. The five levels of pedal assist and throttle control give you full flexibility in how much effort you want to put in. I got the bike to almost 30mph with the pedal assist and to 22mph using the throttle. The suspension system, which features an 80mm front fork and a rear mid-air shock, makes city potholes and light off-road trails smooth and manageable.

I live in New Jersey, and if you know anything about our roads, they are terribly maintained and have potholes everywhere. The Kingbull Jumper Go kept the ride very smooth and managed those potholes perfectly. I also took it through some gravel roads, trails, and through some wet terrain, and it was great. The fat tires gives you a strong sense of confidence both on road and when you are dealing with a more challenging terrain.

The design

The step-through frame is especially helpful for beginners and for riders who are sharing this bike with someone who is a different height. The step-through frame also makes it easy to dismount or quickly react by easily putting your feet down without feeling like you are going to tip over.

The 20” Kenda fat tires provide great traction and comfort on surfaces ranging from pavement to grass and gravel. The Tektro hydraulic brakes are responsive and reliable, offering solid control even at higher speeds. You also get a fantastic LED display with real-time speed, distance traveled, and battery life. It is also plenty bright, so the display is easily visible even in the brightest conditions.

After riding this for two weeks in both urban and off-road settings, the Kingbull Jumper Go proved to be equally capable as a commuter eBike, urban cruiser, and all-terrain bike. Its compact frame makes it easier to handle and store compared to larger full-size fat-tire bikes, but without compromising on performance.

Kingbull Jumper Go Pricing and availability

The Kingbull Jumper Go is currently available through Kingbull’s official website for just under $1,699. However, they have a limited-time summer promotion offering $100 OFF with code Electrek, bringing the price down to $1,599. That discount makes it one of the best values on the market for a full-suspension, Class 3 fat-tire eBike. Kingbull’s 2-year warranty also backs it and offers local test ride availability in California, giving potential buyers added peace of mind and confidence in the brand.

Check out the Kingbull Jumper Go today!

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I bought a 30 MPH electric jet boat from China. Here’s what showed up

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I bought a 30 MPH electric jet boat from China. Here's what showed up

Yep, I did it again. I bought something weird and crazy from China. It’s a mini electric jet boat. “What’s a mini electric jet boat?” you might be asking. Think: comically small one-seater boat with an electrically powered jet ski drivetrain.

Basically, I plopped down a not insignificant amount of money online and then crossed my fingers. Here’s what happened next.

Firstly, this is kind of par for the course for me. If you’ve been following my writing for any significant period of time, you’ll have learned two things about me. I like e-bikes and I like buying weird electric vehicles from China that I don’t need. It’s a problem, I know. I’m going to get help one day. But that day is not today.

Because today I’ve got a new electric jet boat. You can see my unboxing and testing video of this aquatic miracle here, or keep reading below for the full story of how this happened.

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So here’s how it went. I’ve spent years writing a mostly-weekly column on the fun and weird Alibaba electric vehicles I find in my time-wasting window-shopping searches. A couple of years ago, one of them was a mini electric jet boat. And I’ve wanted one ever since.

So I started researching factories in China that build these things and talked to a number of them. Some seemed fairly new. Others seemed like fronts or merely trading companies. And they all seemed pretty shady. But this isn’t my first rodeo and so I chose the one that seemed the least risky and started talking details. I use a Chinese messaging service similar to WhatsApp that makes it a lot easier to communicate with the factories, and the lovely girl who works their sales office showed me several models and features. Together, we worked through the details and specs until I had planned out basically what I wanted.

Then it came time to pay.

This is always the scariest part and so I wired to China more money than a bad idea should cost. Over there, it’s common to do a 30% down payment and 70% balance payment upon completion, so that’s what I offered. I’m glad I did because production took several months longer than I expected, and I was starting to get worried, but fortunately, the factory was sending me fairly regular pictures and video updates of progress, which was comforting. After a few months, my order was finally ready, and so they packaged it up and shipped it off to me.

I’m not sure what Christmas morning feels like, but I bet it’s something like this

I should also mention that while I normally use FOB (free on board) or CIF (cost, insurance, freight) terms for these kinds of deals where I get some new toy in from China, this particular case was a bit riskier, and so I went with DDP (delivered duty paid) terms. The two former options leave most of the work on me to ship and import the thing, while the last option means the seller basically handles everything until there’s a janky wooden crate dropped in my driveway. DDP terms are always more expensive, and many factories don’t want to mess with it since it leaves most of the work of shipping and importing on the seller or their freight forwarder, which I preferred in this case.

This was also before all the new Trump tariffs this year, and so duties were much lower (somewhere around 27-28% total, I believe. Now they are probably 2-3x that much).

But with all of the work of actually dealing with getting the thing now finished, it was time to crack open the box. Inside was my shiny blue electric jet boat! I had it shipped to my parents’ place in Florida because they have a decently large pond where I could test it. There I got it open and hauled it back to the pond in what else but my electric mini truck that I bought from China nearly four years ago. It has since lived a loving but not easy life as a farm truck, and this isn’t even one of the weirdest things that has graced its bed in the last few years.

The little boat is so small that it actually fits nicely in the little bed of my mini-truck, and it was a great example of why I even wanted this thing to begin with: it’s small enough to fit in a car, so you can take it to the lake or ocean without needing a boat trailer.

Even a jet-ski needs a trailer, but you could take this little vessel to the shore with a kayak rack on your Tesla, or even on a decent car! Just kidding, I don’t even own a car… unless you count that mini-truck that I gave to my parents.

At the pond I dropped the boat down onto the grass, dragged it the last bit of the way down the bank and splashed it right into the drink. From there, I just needed to plop the 5 kWh LiFePO4 battery into the underseat compartment and I was ready to go.

There were no instructions, so it took me a couple of minutes to figure out the right combination of buttons to push and key turns to actually start it up, but from the first push of the accelerator, I knew this thing was wild!

Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world…

It was supposed to be just over 30 mph capable (50 km/h or 27 knots), but the pond is only around 300 feet long and so the opposite bank comes at you mighty fast. I think I only got it up to around half its top speed because 1) I didn’t want to run aground, and 2) I was legitimately scared to go faster.

The boat comes with these weird stainless steel mounts on the side, and it turns out they are for this ridiculous looking inflatable bumper thing that reminds me of a big toilet seat. I didn’t install it because I hate how it ruins the sleek look of the boat. But I instantly discovered why they designed it, since the jet boat feels horribly unstable at slow speeds. As soon as you turn sharply and let off the throttle at slow speeds, you start heeling over significantly. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling since you’re sitting at the water line and feel like you’re going to be thrown out of the boat. The ballast of the huge battery sitting so low, plus whatever actual ballast they build into these things, probably means you won’t really capsize. But it sure feels like you’re going for a swim soon.

Turning at speed is much nicer, but if you’re not yet planing (going fast enough to rise out of the water and glide over the surface instead of just floating due to water displacement), it just feels like you’re going to rock yourself right out in a turn. The boat was obviously designed to handle at high speeds, not low speeds. It doesn’t have the wide beam of a jet ski for stability, so that inflatable toilet seat gives it low-speed stability.

But alas, I just couldn’t bring myself to install the nautical version of training wheels on that beautiful thing, so I pushed through it and just kept it at fairly high speeds in the pond. It was a blast, and with my dad there watching me, I was excited to give him a turn too.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I actually bought two of them.

Yeah, so… I didn’t just get one

With my dad’s boat unboxed, we both got in our own mini jet boats and had a blast ripping high-speed loops around his backyard pond.

These things are insanely powerful for what feels like a stubby kayak when you sit inside it, and the performance gives you an ear to grin.

Just be prepared for your face to turn to terror the first time you let off the throttle too abruptly and take a sharp turn.

As fun as they were though, we still weren’t even past half way down on the accelerator pedal, and so I knew that a larger body of water was going to be in our future.

Dad and I acting like a couple of kids in our mini jet boats!

These are motorized vessels and so they require registration to use them in public waterways in most states. It’s not like a kayak or canoe where you can just put in anywhere and pretty much be alright with the law. And in Florida, where the state makes a lot of its money from its waterways, they actually enforce this stuff.

I imagine I can get the boats properly registered with hull numbers for use in public waterways, but for expediency’s sake, I set my sights on a big private lake in a local eco-friendly planned community. The cool thing is that these huge lakes are off-limits to combustion engine watercraft, which means they’re basically only for kayakers and canoers, or the rare person who has an electric boat.

I’m a rare person.

So with the entire lake empty, I brought my jet boat over in the back of my family’s car and put in at the kayak dock.

If you watched my video above, you’ll already know how that went (complete with Beach Boys-style song montage). But for those who prefer to read instead of watching an awesome little jet boat rocket around a big lake, just know that it was an absolute riot. The mini electric jet boat is insanely fast and skipped the glassy surface of the pond like a pebble with a rocket engine on it.

Of course, the surface didn’t stay glassy long with the massive wake I was sending out, and that meant soon I was getting airborne, hopping my own wake while pulling tight figure eights.

With around 25 minutes of boating and filming, I had dropped the battery from 100% to 70%. Despite the high power, that big battery was impressively lasting!

That little spec is my boat!

The whole experience proved to me how right I was about the convenience of this boat format. This whole exploit was simple, a word that is almost never used when discussing boat ownership. To get to the water, I simply loaded the boat in the back of the car and then used a cheap Amazon kayak trailer to waddle it the 100 feet or so from the parking lot to the dock. The boat is still quite heavy – I’d guess at least 150 lb (70 kg) or so. But lifting one side at a time is doable by one dude, and the kayak trailer made it easy enough to move on my own across land.

There was no boat trailer necessary. No searching for a boat ramp. No hoping to stay off of Miami Boat Ramp YouTube channels lampooning people who don’t know what they’re doing with a trailer, etc. It was the boating experience of a jet-ski meets the ownership experience of a kayak.

For anyone who lives along the water, this would be an amazing toy to own. There are so many people with lakefront property who could have their own mini electric boat to tool around on whenever they want. Or if you live close to the coast, you could keep the boat in the garage with a kayak hoist and just drive it on down to the coast for fun. These things practically sell themselves. Cheaper than an electric surfboard and nearly as portable.

Yes, this one is photoshopped. It’s a real shot, but I swapped out the brown tannin lake water for nice blue sea water

Which brings me to cost. I ended up paying around $5,500 for each boat, which is a lot to risk on this stuff, with only a hope that it would work out and that I could make some of the money back on my video and writing. And if you’re thinking, “Wow, this guy plopped down $11k on this stuff,” then I have two things to tell you. First, a Jet Ski would have cost more and been a huge hassle. And two, I didn’t spend $11k; I spent a lot more.

In fact, I couldn’t stop myself at the time (and considered it something of a business expense – hey, I’m working right now, people!), so it turns out that I actually bought three of these things. I know this sounds like an excuse, but it just made sense with how much shipping was already costing me! I mean, c’mon – I couldn’t afford not to.

Though I still have the third one in the crate and I’ll probably end up selling it new in box, if someone wants to find my email and make me an offer.

That also means I have two boats that I plan to keep, and I need names for them. Please hit me with your suggestions in the comment section. One of my subscribers suggested an absolute banger of a name with Sunny Side Up for my yellow and white solar-powered Chinese electric pleasure boat, and that’s what I went with.

Well, I did already say that I know I have a problem

Now I will say that as fun as these things are, they aren’t perfect. One of the boats arrived with its bilge pump motor always running due to a faulty float switch (oh yeah, they even have a bilge pump!). The factory also told me that they couldn’t install real cleats through the hull, though at least they did give me a bow eye that helps with tying it up.

I’ve technically been sitting on this story for a year, and I can tell you that after a year of living out in the Florida elements, one of the boat’s paint is a bit cracked near the hinges of the seat where it gets stressed from lifting the seat up to remove the battery.

The boats are also surprisingly loud. These are the loudest EVs I’ve ever seen, and I thought the F-150 Lightning was loud! A neighbor has one and I once remarked that it sounded like a jet turbine in the summer because of all its fans running, but now I know what an EV with an actual jet turbine sounds like, or at least a water jet turbine. To be more accurate, it’s not the boat that’s loud, but rather the cavitating water inside the jet turbine that is constantly screaming as its vacuum cavities repeatedly expand and collapse as they shoot out the back of the boat’s vectored thrust nozzle. It sounds like a wet, angry bat out of hell. A guy watching me from the shore of the lake actually asked if it was a two-stroke! So don’t think this is going to be a silent boat. The motor is silent, but the shooting water is loud.

Then there’s the battery. It weighs nearly 80 pounds and you have to pull the battery out to charge it – you can’t leave it in the boat and charge it since the charge and discharge port are one and the same.

I also burned out one of the chargers when I accidentally let the charger tip fall on some wet grass while it was plugged in. Poof. The magic smoke was out of the charger, and it wasn’t going back in. I’ll have to find another 84V charger and solder this massive and unique charging connector onto its output wire.

Speaking of the chargers, they are 2,500-watt chargers. They’ll impressively fill the batteries in just over two hours, but they are so powerful that they won’t run on any normal household 120V outlet. I got lucky that my dad’s garage had an RV outlet with a 30A breaker; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to use the charger.

But downsides aside, the rest of the experience was incredible! I love these things! They’re just so much fun, and they bring a smile to everyone’s face. Since I bought them a year ago, I’m seeing many more options on Alibaba for other factories starting to make and sell mini jet boats. I can all but guarantee you that within a year or two, there will be people re-selling mini jet boats in the US. Just make sure you go with a reputable company that has done its homework and can stand behind these things. A couple of years ago, I started an electric tractor company based on making a long list of improvements to what was originally a German-designed and Chinese-produced electric loader. We developed it (and subsequent models) into our own new design, offer full warranties, and keep a US warehouse stocked with replacement parts. That’s the only way to do business right, so don’t get hosed a few months from now by some fly-by-night company that read this article and then thought it would be a good idea to start hawking Chinese mini jet boats in the US. These things are quite rough around the edges (literally and figuratively) and would take some significant work to make them safe and reliable for a Western market.

And in the same vein, I don’t actually recommend anyone try and buy one of these from China, either. There’s just too much risk and too big a chance that you’ll get ripped off in the end, or you’ll get bent over a shipping container by customs and end up paying several times the purchase price in shipping and import fees.

I don’t have any plans to import and sell these, largely because of the liability (imagine how much I pay in business liability insurance just to run a tractor company) and the fact that there are too many design changes I’d need to make to turn it into something I’d be proud to stand behind and put my name on. I mostly go on these real-life Alibaba escapades because 1) I enjoy testing the weird and fun things you can find in a country that has certain product safety and manufacturing advantages compared to the West (i.e. less of the first and more of the second), and 2) so that I can share these experiences with my audience, most of whom will never have the ability to try these things themselves.

But hey, as a neat toy for my parents’ pond and the local lakes or Gulf of Mexico fun days, these are going to be perfect for us!

Because the lake deserves better than oil slicks and exhaust fumes…

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