Does the LNG glut change anything?
There’s an important story in the FT about the drop in UK gas prices resulting from massive LNG imports over the past couple of months. The authors note the additional volumes have come from the US, Qatar and Algeria. The story also carries this eyebrow raising chart: As a result of the above, the story […]
Crypto reflexivity and the ultimate stablecoin reading list
The day of reckoning so many naysayers warned the stablecoin market would eventually experience has finally arrived. In some respects, the shakeout is probably a good thing. We need to see these aspiring systems fail in controlled ways to understand the scope of their potential contagion if they were ever to get huge and thus […]
Why financial engineering has gone full circle with Terra
I’m really pressed for time but I wanted to get this out as it’s important. Here as a result is the longish thread-based reply I just posted on Twitter in response to this question: One question: if I buy tether, my cash was supposedly going into a short term dollar asset (asset side of tethers […]
Running on diesel fumes and other commodity crunch stories
The diesel situation is dire. What policymakers seem to be missing is that it’s not just the market’s capacity to provide for today that is under stress. It’s also the market’s capacity to build inventories in the traditional inventory-building season. I am on the run a lot until Saturday (in Poland), but I thought I […]
In the Blind Spot (Terra, Diesel, Cartels)
Housekeeping note. I have been traveling this week (and am currently in Poland for a conference) hence the giant content hole. Finance, economics, markets etc… Is the Terra fail a Lehman moment for crypto? I have been travelling so I haven’t been able to keep up with the Terra debacle as well as I would […]
Paul Tucker on BoE independence
My former colleagues Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins have bagged an absolute must-listen interview with Paul Tucker, formerly of the BoE, now a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Tucker is also the author of Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State. He also happens to be a voice […]
Do politicised central banks have a right to independence?
One of the great questions of our time is whether central bank independence is really still a thing. Yes, of course, in principle it still is. But in recent post-QE, ESG, Covid stimulus and climate-agenda years, the lines between government policy and central bank policy are becoming ever more blurred. This becomes clear when you […]
Indian heatwave compounds Ukrainian grain shortage
Apologies for light content this week. I have been doing a lot of ‘old school’ news gathering (i.e. face-to-face). In that capacity I recently met with Elena Neroba, a Ukrainian agricultural commodity analyst, usually based in Kyiv, who gave me a fascinating overview of the state of the market. She arrived in London a few […]
Spotlight on a very noble gas crisis
“The scriptwriters of Game of Thrones could not have made this up.” When Stefano Marani, CEO of South Africa-based Renergen, began exploring for gas in the country’s Witwatersrand basin he never expected he would find gold. But then one day in early 2021, he struck what some might say was the next best thing: a […]
That Barclays ETN blunder keeps getting bigger
ICYMI: Barclays to its ETN Investors: Drop Dead pic.twitter.com/fqcHL2ipGS — Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 28, 2022 Here’s the Barclays filing presented with TBS highlights: London, 29 April 2022–Asdetailed in itsQ1 2022 results announcement, Barclays determined that it had issued securities in excess of the amount registered under the Barclays Bank PLC (BBPLC) US shelf registration […]