This Week’s Gilt Moves are Probably Linked to Intraday Funding Failings
When it became apparent this week that LDI entities, such as insurers and pension funds, would need a large chunk of cash very quickly so as to not default on hedges… how do you think the story went down in money markets? Because, yes, defaulting on counterparts is bad. But in a cleared system, the […]
It’s not Gilts you should be worrying about… #standwithGBP
Here’s an uncomfortable truth for a Thursday morning. The Great British Krona and the gilt market are going to be just fine. If you’re British and your immediate reaction to this assertion is rage and a compulsion to tell the author they’re an idiot… we have to break it to you. You may be suffering […]
EQE and the Conditionality Risk in the Energy Markets Financing Scheme
There were many ways to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of Black Wednesday this week, the day the UK crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and sparked a sterling crisis. Neil Collins and Jonathan Ford, hosts of the A Long Time in Finance podcast, chose to do it in a three-part series that ran […]
Bed, Bath and Beyond Saga; The Plot Thickens
This is the third part in our series analysing this summer’s meme stock favourite, BBBY. Our first instalment went into a previously-unknown element behind the rise of GameStop (GME) stock in late 2019 (unknown to the mainstream at least). This noted that a user called ‘namsilat’, who also appears to operate TheCorporation subreddit, had provided […]
Voice Notes: Reflections on CBDCs
(On the beat in London…OTRB) FIRST DRAFT Voice Note: Settlement Costs Factoid: The Riksbank apparently decided to plug into the European T2S settlement system rather than develop its own system as it was more cost-efficient to do so. This is despite the Swedish krona obviously not being in the eurozone. I did not know that. […]
Russia’s Decaying Sphere of Influence: Contested Resources
This is the first in an occasional series looking into Russia’s decaying sphere of influence. In this edition we take a closer look at the scale of contested resources in the region. The Global and International Domain of Minero-Dollars What are the resources (or lack thereof) currently being battled over at the periphery of Russia’s […]
Diesel Generators, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fuel Crisis
Startling news regarding insane price increases in electricity bills have pleased few. According to Citi, the UK inflation rate will hit 18 per cent in early 2023, while Ofgem announced the average household bill will increase to £3,549 a year from October 1, 2022 – 2.5 times higher than last year. Stories like that of […]
Hi Shrinkflation, Meet Your Cousin Shitflation
The Rise of Shrinkflation The term Shrinkflation, coined and popularised by American economist Pippa Malmgren, speaks to hidden price increases in the world around us. It has taken the world by storm. As the above graph from Manage by Walking Around, shows, size really does matter — never mind what your first sweetheart told you. […]
There’s an Arms Race Going on With Online cults, and it Affects Us All
In our previous post, we discussed how the XRP crypto movement has leveraged cult dynamics to rally networks and communities to silence and repress critics in ways that both boost and defend the value of its key token. The question at hand is whether democracy can survive in an environment where anyone can print their […]
When Crypto Cults Collide with Influence Operations, XRP Edition
Of all the cryptos, in all the world, XRP — the brainchild of Ripple Labs — has always seemed the most redundant and pointless to this author. One of the reasons for this is that the structure seems purposefully designed to make gazillionaires out of its key holders. That includes people like Chris Larsen, a […]