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Economic sanctions and vodka bans - 2022 May 16
In the middle of the Russia-Ukraine crisis many people started calling for all sorts of bans. How effective are these really? Calls for bans on Vodka are far more informative than I'd ever have imagined as it exposes many of the complexities of the modern world including how brands are so utterly disconnected from what they represent.
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Russia-Ukraine conflict crypto grifting - 2022 March 02
There's definitely unscrupulous people out there who live by the notion of "never let a crisis go to waste" who are using the recent war as a means to grift and scam. Some of these people are using crypto currencies to run these scams.
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Bastiat on legal systems and morality - 2022 February 28
Came across a highly relevant quote from Bastiat today
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My bank workshop experience - 2022 February 17
Just as the Covid pandemic was starting I ran a workshop that was easily the worst one I've run in my career. Despite things going poorly there was a huge learning opportunity that I'm glad I had. The banking industry has changed dramatically and I wasn't prepared for it.
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Omicrons extreme transmissibility combined with far milder symptoms is forcing policy changes - 2022 January 11
Omicrons extreme transmissibility combined with vastly lower hospitalization and death rates is forcing policy changes worldwide.
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Transitory inflation means permanent purchasing power reduction - 2022 January 05
Transitory inflation means permanent purchasing power reduction
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A change in the common knowledge in the markets - last weekend of November - 2021 November 29
On the weekend with announcements of the Omicron covid variant I suspect there might be a shift in sentiment.
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Bank bail ins - 2021 November 25
The recent currency crisis events in Turkey are worth paying attention to, especially with regards to the response taken. One particular tool that might be used in a bail in. Turkey is a G20 country and bank bail in legislation has been introduced in most G20 countries. In this article I outline what the bail in mechanism is and some of the reasons why these exist along with some of the practical realpolitik issues that would get in the way of actually using one.
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Futures markets lower prices, both in good and bad ways - 2021 October 28
Futures markets suppress prices, this is good in some regards but this mechanism can be used in such a way that's not so good.
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V shaped lies - 2021 October 01
The non-financial economy is still in a bad state, and anyone who looks at the raw data knows it, but the shared delusion of the V shaped recovery is powerful and stubbornly persistent. It's also extremely harmful to a lot of people, this sort of gaslighting is doing an enormous amount of damage to people. It's this harm that makes me feel compelled to write on the subject, people deserve better than this.
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