In the Blind Spot (UAPs, BIS Charts, McLuhan)
Finance, Economics, Markets etc.. I wrote about the noble gas markets and how they need to become more transparent. The UN is brokering a deal to ensure safe passage for grains and fertiliser to external markets. Has inflation been globalised? Sri Lanka declares it is bankrupt. Don’t you just love it when the BIS does […]
Leaning into a Western integrity deficit
First there were the abysmal comms from Andrew Bailey. Now I stumble across this: (Two weeks late mind you. But I’m still going to write about it because it has rendered me a bit speechless.) Allegedly the video is from the US 4th Psyop airborne division. What I want to know is at what point […]
The BoE’s great commodity curve forecast fiasco
Hot off the presses from the UK’s ONS on Wednesday: The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.0% in the 12 months to April 2022, up from 7.0% in March. I hope team transitory is taking note. So what does this sorry state of affairs tell us about the Bank of England’s ability to forecast […]
In the Blind Spot (Diesel, Tractors, Inflation)
It’s good to be back! Finance, economics, markets etc: The second part of “A Long Time in Finance’s” interview with Paul Tucker. Worth listening to just to hear Tucker admit that he was not onboard with continuous QE policy. Tyler Cowen on the infant formula shortage. Andrew Bailey’s report for the Treasury Select Committee […]
Valuing Twitter as a giant zero-day exploit harvesting machine
Elon Musk wants to use a fairly crude sampling methodology (which draws on the wisdom of crowds) to reveal the true scale of bot penetration on Twitter. He seems to think that if he discovers that the rate is higher than Twitter has admitted to in public filings it could have a material adverse effect […]
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 […]