In the Blind Spot this Easter Sunday (Versailles, Elon, Precasting)
Finance, economics, markets etc… The illustrated Zoltan Pozsar. This week’s Blind Spot spotlight is on what I have termed “the end of dollar neutrality” and why this is an important historical marker for finance. It riffs on Zoltan but takes things in its own direction. After I wrote it, however, Zoltan popped up with a […]
Anacyclosis Watch: Why the middle class underpins democracy
In The Blind Spot’s first post introducing the concept of Anacyclosis, Tim Ferguson, founder of the Anacyclosis Institute, explained how the ancient Greek theory outlines the probable and natural sequence of political evolution. As that post concluded, authentic democracy – reflecting but one phase in this broader sequence – requires a stable, independent and self-sufficient […]
Almost an energy mea culpa from Boris
I’ve been pretty up front about the fact that the precarious energy situation we find ourselves in today is mostly of our own making. Even so, it still hasn’t been stressed enough that so much of it is due to the UK’s and Europe’s specific insistence that removing natural gas from the energy mix to […]
Me and Bobby Malone
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’, honey, if it ain’t free, no no*
In the Blind Spot on Friday (Yergin, Nukes, Democracy)
Housekeeping note: Still running a reduced service because of the Easter hols. But will be back with gusto soon. Finance, markets, etc.. The ECB did a CBDC survey, and it turns out people are keen on privacy. More on how Zoltan Pozsar sees the world. Energy crisis threatens to eclipse 1970s shocks, says Daniel Yergin. […]
In the Blind Spot on Tuesday (Elon, Oil futures, Off balance sheet affairs)
Some housekeeping: It’s the Easter holidays so posting will be intermittent and light for the next two weeks. But not totally absent! Finance, markets etc… Pippa Malmgren on the off-balance sheet world. A really interesting piece that essentially makes explicit what has been implicit for a long time. That globalism and open source practice has […]
A deep dive into Zoltan Pozsar’s Bretton Woods III world view
As an addendum to my original note about Zoltan Pozsar’s Friday note, here are my extended thoughts on his Bretton Woods III magnum opus. On commodity basis: Zoltan says: Furthermore, like there is a “base” interest rate (EFFR and the OIS curve that springs from it) and a basis between that base rate and other […]
Russia’s special “K” account operation echoes communist practices
There’s a very reasonable counter narrative going around to the whole Russia is demanding roubles thing. It argues this is more a reserve management story than it is anything else. And this would be correct. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what currency a country demands for its exports. The buyer just goes to the FX market […]
“You can print money, but not oil to heat or wheat to eat”
There’s a new Zoltan Pozsar of Credit Suisse report out… and he starts off by saying: …you can print money, but not oil to heat or wheat to eat. I’m so glad because this rather obvious point seems to be completely missed by economists and analysts for unknown reasons. Nor do they seem to get […]
In the Blind Spot on Thursday (Media, Roubles, Satoshi )
Finance, markets etc.. Germany takes a step towards rationing over payment stand-off with Russia. Why is nobody talking about the fact that Russia is demanding gold for payments. [Here’s the release from the Bank of Russia on March 28 noting that they will be buying gold at 5,000 roubles per gram.] Putin says Russia will […]