Why commodity credit mechanics matter
Why the stress in commodity credit lines could be indicative of a major dollar-financing paradigm shift.
Spotlight on Biosecurity: How ‘gain-of-function’ slipped through the net
As the global Covid-19 pandemic swept through the globe in 2020 devastating lives and national economies, a small community of scientists operating in a fringe corner of virology suddenly found themselves in a strangely conflicted situation. The grave circumstances, as awful as they were, appeared at face value to vindicate a controversial scientific research method […]
Transcript: What’s really going on with Ukrainian biolabs
Earlier this week I hosted a Twitter Spaces session with two world-leading experts in the field of biodefence, Filippa Lentzos from King’s College London and Greg Koblentz, of George Mason University to try and get to the bottom of Russian claims that Ukrainian biolabs are secretly engaged in offensive biological weapon development. The below is […]
In the Blind Spot on Wednesday (ETPs, Nigeria, Cables)
Finance, business, markets etc … There’s been a powerful earthquake in Fukushima. Barclays has suspended two ETNs, the iPath Pure Beta Crude Oil ETN and the iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-term futures ETN (VXX). [It’s always around this point in the Exchange Traded Product fallout narrative that the mainstream press gets openly confused […]
WW3 Watch: An unexpected intervention from the Vatican
In big news for Catholics around the world, Vatican News reported on Wednesday that the Pope would consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Some subscribers might be confused as to why this should be of relevance to financial investors? But, as I already noted in my Moscow, the Third Rome piece, […]
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. […]