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In the Blind Spot (Central bank schisms in Europe and beyond)

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.   SNEAK PEEK — What it means for Poland and the ECB’s independence if Prime Minister Donald Tusk manages to remove central bank governor Adam Glapiński. — Dario argues that Nato’s push to up readiness for a Russian attack on Europe will run into the […]

Spotlight: How ‘yellow rain’ misinformation blew back on us

In an exclusive interview recorded in 2021, Jim Coyne, a Vietnam veteran who later became a freelance journalist for Soldier of Fortune (SOF) magazine, explained how he had been duped into believing that the infamous “yellow rain” of the 1980s was a real biochemical weapon, but also how his experience may have been purposefully hijacked […]

In the Blind Spot (A Weekend of Mistakes in Hay-on-Wye)

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news. SNEAK PEEK — Izzy gives an update from Hay on Wye’s Weekend of Mistakes. — This week’s big blind spot argues CBDCs won’t be able to handle authorised push payment fraud. — Dario takes a deep dive into what exactly the UAE’s land deal with […]

ALTIF Transcripts: The price is wrong: Why free markets and climate don’t mix

TBS Note: Here’s a one-off transcript from Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins’ “A long time in finance” podcast. We were carrying these weekly in our first year, but had to discontinue them due to insufficient transcription resources (automatic ones just aren’t good enough to post without having to double check them manually). But apparently, the […]

Spotlight on the pre-positioning revolution coming to finance

TLDR: Cbankers’ enthusiastic embrace of prepositioning points to growing acceptance of former BoE governor Lord Mervyn King’s ‘Pawnbroker For All Seasons” model. But some worry it might have grave consequences for free markets. There’s a quiet revolution happening at the heart of central banking, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. On the surface, the inconspicuous […]

Spot Markets Live Transcript, 13/10/23 (Bonds, Uranium, Wine, Polish elections)

Izabella Kaminska10:26 10:28 Hello and welcome back to SPOT MARKETS LIVE. Yes, we’re back. Mainly because the markets are looking a little iffy again. But also because we finally found ourselves a solid partner for a daily gig. 10:31 Just waiting for the rabble to arrive. Sorry, typos already, so deleted the last comment. Hello […]

Could Trump use forgotten Chinese debt to salvage the global economy?

As the United States confronts an impending government shutdown amid an unwelcome outbreak of bond vigilantism, an unexpected remedy to global financial implosion might just lie in a murky corner of long forgotten financial history. Dormant for decades, the Blind Spot understands the overlooked issue of defaulted Chinese imperial debt is quietly turning heads on […]