speculation

I missed this one from Omid Malekan a few weeks back but it's a good primer on gas/petrol prices for those of you who are interested.

This daily commentary is a bronze level members-only post. I wonder how the oil issue is going to play out in this particular election since everyone seems to be talking about how high the price of gasoline/petrol is. In the US, we are…

Whatever happened to fuel switching between natural gas and diesel? The switch from diesel to natural gas is one of the biggest types of fuel switching in transport. You see this with all the buses now running natural gas instead of diesel.…

The people at NECSI sent me the following interesting blurb on the relationship between rise food prices and social unrest

BBC’s Hardtalk recently featured Kyle Bass, Founder of Hayman Capital, a hedge fund based in Texas to talk about global markets and the sovereign debt crisis. Video below

This chart by John Kemp of Reuters tells you that speculation played a huge role in the run up in oil prices earlier this year, hugely amplifying the underlying fundamental trend. Hat tip to the FT’s Izabella Kaminska. She is right to say…

This video clip has been making the rounds so I thought I should post it (without commentary). The line most people have focused on is the one I quoted in the post title. Feel free to comment.

The consequences of negative real interest rates and financial repression. We know how this story ends. Keep this one on your radar.

What is surprising is that over the past decade, the price rises you find for 33 commodities are just about beyond the realm of possibility—2, 3, and 4 standard deviations away from trend. It is a boom without any precedent. Quite simply,…

Central banks are taking on quasi-fiscal roles because the fiscal agent is lacking as in Europe or is unwilling to take bold steps toward a permanent solution to a systemic problem. What we need is ring fencing of core deposit-taking…