When Betting goes Right, and Investing Doesn’t
It was during the market closing hours of September 28 that Jake Freeman opened his portfolio and counted his losses; his holdings in the psychedelic biotech company, Mind Medical, had just dropped by 49%. Just weeks before, his face had been plastered over financial media because of his trade on then-meme stock favourite Bed, Bath, […]
On the Public Shaming of Liz Truss
A Tweet thread I posted yesterday about Liz Truss went semi-viral, and as can be expected responses have ranged from critical (yet informed) to totally feral. Given its virality, I thought I would explain myself in longer form (since who really has the time to get into an endless tit-for-tat on the world’s least-nuanced social […]
Spot Markets Live Transcript: 19/10/22
Comments addressing audience statements are in bold. Today’s session is with Dario Garcia Giner. Izabella Kaminska 11:59 Greetings and welcome to the weekly Spot Markets Live session that’s usually on a Monday but happening on a Wednesday today because of my journeys to Portugal to attend the London Bullion Market Association annual conference. So apologies […]
Reflections on (Just Over) 24 Hours With the Gold Industry
I have just had the pleasure of spending about 24 hours with precious market participants attending the annual London Bullion Markets Association gathering which took place in Lisbon this week. I was there as a keynote speaker, embracing the challenging task of speaking on a topic of my choice. In the end, I stuck to […]
ALTIF Transcripts; The Great Pension Fund Panic of 2022
The market panic that followed Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget last month has been blamed on pension funds doing something called LDI. But what is this strange practice, what is its purpose, and how has it led to a £65bn meltdown in the pensions market? Neil and Jonathan talk to pensions expert (and grand wizard of […]
In the Blind Spot (Hyper-capitalism, Drones, UAP)
Dear readers; Izabella is off this weekend conferencing around Europe, and as such has left the Blind Spot Wrap in the shaky hands of Dario. As such, the notes below are dangerously unsupervised and prone to the arrogance and over-intellectualisation typical of inexperienced under-30s. Please bear them with patience. Media & Market Matters Greek renewable […]
Rationist No. 6: That Extreme Wealth Concentration is the Grim Reaper of Democracy
This is the sixth in a series of essays by Tim Ferguson, founder of the Anacyclosis Institute, arguing in favour of Rationism, a middle-class-oriented political theory that advocates benchmarking the national economy against the national median household net worth. Izabella Kaminska has also described Rationism as Vitruvian Capitalism, based on its promotion of the values […]
The Blind Spot’s Chart-A-Thon Bonanza: The Last Quarter in Charts
Sometimes a picture says a thousand words. Other times a graph or a table does even better. The Blind Spot has been collecting its favourites over the last couple of months and here’s the best of them. They’re sourced from all sorts of weird places, and if the source isn’t clear, that’s our bad. In […]
Spot Markets Live Transcript: 14/10/22
Today’s Spot Markets Live is with Helmholtz, a former sell-side pro with nearly 40 years worth of experience running rates desks at various investment banks. Helmholtz has agreed to give us his thoughts on the condition of pseudonymity, but we can testify to his top-rated expertise. Comments addressing audience questions have been placed in bold. Izabella […]
In The Blind Spot: (Meta, Bunds, CBCDs)
Business, Econ, Finance: ARK Invest’s Catherine Wood sends an open letter to the Fed, claiming its record-breaking rate rise risks a deflationary spiral. Yields on German government bonds jumped following reports Olaf Scholz supported EU joint-debt issuances to counter the energy crisis. There were reports that Germany may pay its citizens’ gas bills in December […]