The state of things On the bench $17k. Behind it lies the separation of money from the state. When asked, most people are quite comfortable that their elected government is in charge of the money supply. They remark, very reasonably, that “who else is going to do it……you?”. It is the right question because whilst

Contagion Next up in the FTX drama is Genesis Trading, perhaps the largest prime broker in the digital asset sector. Genesis is owned by the Digital Currency Group (DCG) who also happen to own the largest bitcoin fund in the world, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). GBTC trades now at a 43% discount to its

Things we cannot say A forbidden topic. It’s just a thought. Emerging from the wreckage of FTX to lead the industry is a Chinese-Canadian guy who bootstrapped a business into a multi-billion dollar business. For the first 12 months of his operation nobody would give him a bank account, so he had to build his

Fried Before we begin, I should make clear that ListedReserve has no exposure to FTX or the FTT token. This week’s drama being a good lesson in why segregated custodial arrangements for digital assets are vital. I suppose they will make a movie from this one day. In the battle of the crypto-billionaires this week

Risk-free These are nervous times for investors looking for shelter. Taking up the challenge is BlackRock, who when they aren’t buying all the family homes in America, also operate the iShares Treasury ETF. Their website provides helpful resources showing exactly what historic returns would be for plucky bond investors. In circumstances like these, capital preservation

Burst “Bitcoin, briefly the world’s favourite cryptocurrency, is in trouble. It plummeted from a peak of around $33 per unit in June to just $2.51.” Quite the fall it was too, 95% in four months. Still, it didn’t die, blocks kept coming, the monetary policy stayed exactly the same as it always was and always

The pivot that isn’t coming  While we wait for the Federal Reserve to pivot to money printing, I might put forth the suggestion that it simply isn’t going to happen. There are signs that the objective of the Fed is far bigger than simply killing off inflation. The Federal Reserve is jointly owned by the

4% Increasingly, 4% seems to be the magic number. When US 10 year yields hit that level, the system wobbles. Various collapses attest to that, first in Sri Lanka and most recently in the UK. US debt now sits at $31 trillion. At 4% interest their annual repayments would be $1.2 trillion, 50% more than

Australia It’s no surprise to see Switzerland and the USA at the top of the list for average wealth. However, if we look at median wealth the story is rather different. This measure controls for super-rich Americans who dominate the rich list. The United States does not appear at all in the top 10 for

UK goes all in The UK bond market fell off a cliff with 5 year yields shooting straight past 4%. Sterling fell to 40 year lows too, just to make sure foreign investors took a proper pummelling. The Chancellor then jumped on the Sunday morning TV shows promising more of the same, prompting further collapses