Media matters: The weaponisation of ambiguity
We all know the Ukrainians are winning the infowar, and we also know they haven’t always been honest about their claims. But I don’t think everyone is necessarily familiar with the mechanics and techniques they are using. Or the role we, as consumers of news and social media, play in the propaganda strategy. Or, for […]
Empire Watch: Beware the Ides of March
ROME, ITALY (The Blind Spot) – Gaius Julius Caesar, winner of the Civic Crown, conqueror of Gaul, and dictator perpetuo, was fatally stabbed on Tuesday 23 times at the Theatre of Pompey. He was 55 years old. A group of senators identifying as freedom fighters and led by Marcus Junius Brutus have claimed responsibility for […]
WW3 Watch: Monetary policy during wartime
I’ve been trying to figure out what happens to a modern financial system in a global wartime framework, especially a financial system as interconnected and extended as the Western one. How would the system cope with national-scale food, energy and good shortages during a period of martial law? How would the transfer capital away from […]
In the Blind Spot today (Polish sanctions, Biolabs, Covid)
Finance, economics, markets… Goldman’s GQG fund has cut Russian exposure to $222m. This follows the IPO of GQG Partners on the ASX in October 2021, where it was valued at $5.9bn (AUD) and priced at $2 per share. It’s now trading at $1.2 per share. More background here. Everybody missed that on February 18, a […]
Spotlight on biological warfare
From Gain of Function research to biological warfare threats in Ukraine In the summer of 2020, when the zoonotic origin story for Covid was the established consensus on how the global pandemic had been triggered, I was approached by a source who had sensed I might be receptive to a story nobody else was telling. […]
WW3 Watch: Are we facing mutual assured economic destruction?
I asked Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO and former US special representative for Ukraine, whether the West can handle the risk that sanctions blowback is worse for us than it is for Russia.
WW3 Watch: The commodity fallout the market is yet to pick up on
Two days before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, on February 22, I took part in a conversation with Stefano Marani, the CEO of Renergen, a compressed natgas, helium and LNG producer. Here’s what he told me:
In the Blind Spot today (Helium, FATF, ESG)
Finance, markets, business etc: Jeff Snider debates Joseph Wang regarding whether the Fed really controls the dollar. The Canadian dollar is decoupling from oil. Getting to grips with the lesser known commodity shortage emerging out of the War: the market for neon and helium. [This is a big deal because of how it impacts semi-conductor […]
Gosplan Watch: What comes after inflation?
Rome’s capitatio-iugatio was one of the world’s first gosplan systems and a precursor to the feudal serf structures that came to dominate in the medieval ages. Today both the Russian and Chinese technocratic system are channelling similar structures in their rollout of retail-linked CBDCs.
How commodity tri-party agreements might fail
EXCERPT: Commodity markets are being strained by unprecedented daily price moves on the back of the Russia/Ukraine crisis.