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 […]
PayPal’s interest rate sensitivity now has a ¥en angle
PayPal shares, which had suffered sharp declines this year, drew support after the payment processor disclosed in first quarter earnings that it would be cutting its medium-term outlook on a deteriorating macro environment. Most analysts had been anticipating a cut in forecasts. The company’s Q1 results, announced April 27, showed the payment processor posting revenues […]
Twitter’s weird metrics
Ever since Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter was accepted, the social media site has been ablaze with rumours that the company is already making changes to how users and information are handled on the site. Many claim shadow bans have been lifted. Others say previously filtered or constrained feeds have been liberated, and others still […]
Is Russia building an atomic priesthood?
The Blind Spot was one of the first online publications to highlight how an increasingly religious mindset, possibly inspired by a desire to manifest the myth of Moscow as The Third Rome, was possibly influencing Vladimir Putin’s bellicosity in Ukraine. Since then, the idea that Putin sees himself as engaged in a holy mission on […]
In the Blind Spot ($hortages, Roubini, Mass hysteria)
Finance, markets, economics etc… The new corporate governance – a paper by Oliver Hart and Luigi Zingales that argues in favour of replacing shareholder value maximisation with shareholder welfare maximization. The yuan is depreciating quickly: (Chart courtesy of the FT’s market pages.) The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Monday that it will cut […]
An ongoing inquiry into what’s going on with PayPal
The PayPal share price just keeps going down: And here’s the stock compared to the performance of the Nasdaq: The usual pundits are at a loss. They think the stock should stage a comeback soon. As Bloomberg’s Subrat Patnaik noted on Monday: “Wall Street sees the company’s shares jumping 90% over the next year, according […]