As with most crises the world is facing the mother of all dollar squeezes right now, as everyone and their dog is trying to get their hands on the venerable greenback.
The eurodollar system — the true ruler of our world — is under extreme strain. Outside America the US dollar is the closest thing the world has to reality (Gold being the ultimate reality, but thankfully we unhooked ourselves from that disaster a while back). When debts come due everyone is short dollar.
Traditionally the Federal Reserve has acted like the neglectful parent to the eurodollar market, assuming the…
Here’s the anti-money laundering guidance provided to chartered surveyors handling property transactions in the UK when the funds for a purchase arrive from overseas:
Money which originates from an EU or European Economic Area jurisdiction is regarded as coming from a trusted source because the funds, and the bank which holds them, will have been subject to a number of European Union directives which have to be adhered to subject to legal penalty. The European Economic Area includes the EU and Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (through various bilateral agreements).
The same cannot be assumed for money originating from non-EU…
British house prices are now simply a function of credit creation and financial regulation. Problem is to understand that you have to understand credit creation and financial regulation.
Quick question: If I asked you to lend me £10 and then pay me to borrow it from you you’d think I was mad right?
Well this is currently the deal the world is getting when it lends money to Germany over any duration for the next 5 years.
That makes no sense right? I mean we all know how frugal the Germans are but there’s still some risk being borne on the shoulders of the lender and they should be compensated for that risk.
The only way that this makes sense is if something was making this debt more…
With President Trump trade tariffs and Brexit turning increasingly acrimonious Germany finds itself with an outdated economic model built on a world that no longer exists.
US and the UK are on a path now to raise domestic employment by implementing explicit or implicit anti-trade policies (other non-EU countries will certainly follow suit).
Whatever the merit of these policies they will force down the US and UK’s current account deficits and ergo the EU’s current account surplus.
Because the EU’s austerity program has essentially bankrupted peripheral Europe it is no longer able to absorb German surpluses.
So Germany’s current account surplus will be forced into a rapid decline, meaning Germany either has to borrow a huge amount to fund government led investment (e.g. …
Very few politicians understand this and those that do are too scared to explain it
There’s a bit of jargon in this post, but stick with it because the actual concepts are very easy to understand….
What’s a CDO?
At the turn of the century banks got increasingly involved in a new product called a collateralized debt obligation or CDO for short. These are basically lots of bits of loans packaged up into contracts that can be sold and bought.
As a product it makes total sense — it provides one of the key elements to good risk management: diversification. However, when they were transitioned from corporate loans to mortgages they became a conduit through which banks could…
After a slight hiccup this morning (look, how would we know you can’t see the north face of the Eiger from Davos??) ICO-2BIT has landed in Davos!!1!1!
If you want to meet Brian Hollersworth (16 year old math’s genius / head of compliance) and talk all things off-balance-sheet-crypto then we’re in the Science and Tech Zone on the lower concourse.
Tonight we’re hosting a cocktail reception for other like-minded crypto barons where we’ll be discussing how blockchain can solve the refugee crisis. …
There is NOTHING to PANIC about
Dear valued partner,
Firstly, thank you again for investing ICO 2-BIT, the first structured ICO project in the known universe.
Through your faith in us we have been able to deploy your capital into such humanity-advancing projects as a complete upgrade of weaponary for players of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and a lifetime VIP membership for you and your spouse to a mid-market Las Vegas strip club.
But amongst all this good news you may have also noticed a teeny-weeny bit of volatility emerging into the cryptocurrency market.
Now, I will admit that this has…
They have a brand most financial service companies would kill for
If you’re not aware of what CoinBase is, then you must either really want Jamie Dimon to like you or be a financial regulator.
CoinBase is the most popular and professional crypto broker — a service that lets you buy and sell into crypto currencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum etc.).
They have a beautiful interface, very well thought through processes to meet the needs of most users and, except for periods (ED: ‘periods’, seriously??) of extreme volatility, a stable, scaleable platform.
But here’s the issue, no matter where Bitcoin goes being a broker is a tough gig. Over the long term…
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better…
We heard your cries:
- “How will I ever be able to appraise each individual initial coin offering, there’s just too many of them?!”
- “How can I know that I’m investing in the right one?!”
- etc (PR: FILL MORE HERE PLS)
Well guess what, your prayers were answered: !!!WE’RE BRINGING TRANCHES TO ICOs!!!
“Tranches, what are those?” we hear you ask.
Well, as you were only 12 in 2008 let us explain (as we tell financial regulators though the models are super-sophisticated and you’re probably a bit too simple to understand — sorry!).
In a nutshell: We’re going to take a…
As a Stocktwits user noted this week, Square Inc is up 252% this year.
If you don’t know what Square is, it’s a payment platform for retailers and merchandise producers.
Its CEO is Jack Dorsey, who as its founder still holds a significant shareholding in the company which itself amounts to a large percentage of his net-worth.
Now part of Jack’s mission in life seems to be to prove most other CEOs of public companies are just plain lazy. To deliver on this he decided he’d also return as the CEO of another public company he founded, Twitter Inc. …
Tom Brammar
Buying the ends of both tails
