The challenge of governing

It seems to me that politicians are so focussed on winning elections that they never spare a thought about what they need to do when they finally seize the levers of power. Boris Johnson seems particularly deficient in this regard, but he is largely following on …

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4 Nov 2021

SoFi and IPO access

I am deeply sceptical of all EV manufacturers. Rivian seems to make real vehicles, and good ones, but the field is very crowded so I don’t think I’m in. But it looks like some retail investors will at least get the …

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3 November 2021

Renault keys

I did an odd thing last week. I purchased a car on the internet. It was delivered to me, on a flatbed trailer, by a guy from the dealership without my having ever seen the car in person. I’ve bought a lot of things …

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2 Nov

Tether

US Military Spending

This post by Stephen Semler is a welcome reminder of how insanely greedy the US Military Industrial Complex has become. The military in Burma or Pakistan can only dream of the influence of the US Military and their contractors. The scale of the spend …

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29 October 2021

Crypto coins which are also dogs

In the beginning there was hash Hashcash. Then there was Bitcoin. Then there was an infinity of crypto “currencies.” Nobody apart from nerds paid attention. Then someone realized that with enough pumping, these worthless digital tokens could be given value. The …

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28 Oct 2021

Why inflation is headed back down to zero

Eric Basmajian makes a good case that an aging population will drag down productivity, growth and inflation.
He has a lot of charts which are certainly suggestive that he’s right. The outlier of Japan suggests that he’s …

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26 Oct

Physical copper at the LME

This article by Doomberg suggests that the copper futures price does not reflect the shortage of the cash physical copper which the market is a derivative of. I’ve seen a lot of suggestions that the gold futures price is manipulated, to keep …

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25 Oct

Tesla makes a fleet sale to bankrupt car rental business Hertz

The news of a fleet sale added 14% to the market cap of $TSLA, to make it one of the most valuable companies on the planet, selling at a higher multiple than Google, with a market cap …

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is climbing again, as the VIX is crushed. Eurodollar futures have been moving down steadily. Admittedly, this index gave some false signals in March, spiking to 86 and then falling, but if it continues to rise, it will be … interesting.

$EPSN

No, not $ESPN! This is Epsilon Energy. Strong cashflow …

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21 Oct

The frustrations of trading

Money is made by anticipating future events before other market participants. This is not easy: the consensus is usually fairly accurate.

Stock of the day: Destination XL Group ($DXLG)

This was recommended by The Alpha Letter. Neither the author nor I are financial advisers …

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