In the UK, forecourt (pump) fuel prices are up +35% for both petrol and diesel (to 191p/199p respectively) from the last time the price of brent crude held above $120/bbl in Q1 2012. With the oil majors having all reported a strong increase in refining margins and downstream profitability, it must be tempting therefore suggest […]
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Having flunked the very first month of its balance sheet unwind that was articulated in its 04 May ‘cunning plan’, the US Federal Reserve will find that the alternatives will prove no more palatable than those following the inept tenure of that chair up to 1978, Arthur Burns. Sure, the immediate response to Jerome Powell […]
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“Is this deliberate?” is becoming a more familiar question as people slowly awaken. The answer of course remains an emphatic “Yes”, but it is the growing realisation of this agenda that is the important feature here. ‘They’ told you that money printing was good, that lockdowns work and are legal, as are mandating experimental gene […]
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Jerome Powell seems eager to talk the talk on tackling inflation, but has yet to walk the walk. According to his 4 May published plan, the initial reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet should have kicked off at approx $47.5bn per month from 1 June, rising to $95bn per month by September. However, in the […]
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Markets may be focused on rising inflation and bond yields, but this doesn’t fully explain the forces at play here, or the potential ramifications. One of these can be seen by the diverging spreads in government bond yields as an enforced tightening monetary policy removes central bank ability to artificially suppress funding costs for the […]
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It’s not too difficult to identify the potential storm clouds gathering on the economic horizon, so why is it that two of the largest investment banks feel the need to state the blindingly obvious over the past week? It is not as if either Goldman’s or JP Morgan are known for their philanthropy in offering […]
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The 1956 movie Forbidden Planet was at its core a tale of hubris; that technology can overcome nature, whether for Krell or human. The analogy for markets might be the conceit that the business cycle can be expunged without consequence and that one can borrow oneself out of debt. Like the ‘monster from the Id’ […]
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A flattening yield curve is often seen as an ominous portend of economic doom, while a forced increase in interest rates can often ensure its delivery. This convergence however, is the conclusion of a tale that has been in the making for a couple of decades, but one where the inflationary consequences now threaten to […]
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