Disco Central Banker

Traditional central banking theory holds that the central bank is the bank of the state and public administrations, yet the city of Frankfurt, which hosts two central banks, banks with the local Sparkasse.

Every day I expect them to say : we will buy treasuries until we reach 100% of our liabilities and then do our private equity stuff in another entity like any boring emoney issuer and every day I am stunned.

Are we 100% sure the regime itself actually wants the regime to survive? This seems idiotic

South Korea tax service reveals crypto wallet recovery phrase in press release, seized tokens moved in suspected breach: report The incident adds to a string of crypto custody failures involving South Korean authorities in recent months.

There are dumb things in crypto, but Tax authority posting its recovery phrase in press release is probably a top 10.

🫡

Oh interesting

Well

The 1988 film Rambo III ends with a dedication, but the widely circulated quote "This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" is actually an urban legend. The original, official ending credit reads"This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan".

We know where this is going.

I have serious doubts this can go through on a short term (if ever) for the same reasons as stated below but we will see

Takes time just to calculate the risk premium, underwrite, have lawyers on both sides to analyse, ask questions, go for board approval…

You cannot do blanket coverage by fiat. DFC can underwrite risk insurance but will need to be on a carrier by carrier basis and will come with a risk subsidy calculation.

No serious shipper will take “trust me bro, this is legal” when they’ve got crews and hundreds of millions in cargo endangered.

Update: US says they will provide a military escort AND the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will offer insurance for ships travelling through the Strait.

Insurance is always the key word.

Wow

Never understood why some media routinely spin stories about receiving help for citizens evacuations & defence during crisis as a failure and not as a victory of having built-up reliable allies backing you up when you need it

I see we have incredibly specific references

"Whatever it takes"

Silver? The meme commodity ?

I once showed this to someone from the Bank of Japan, and she said she thought it was fake but upon reading the name of the bank she was like : « oh yeah, that’s true the predecessor of Shikoku bank had this pledge too! »

If the client was with Shikoku and not Nomura, the employee wouldn have have committed seppuku instead of going to jail.
#skininthegame

At least this time they didn’t go for the homoerotic “muscles men sweat training in the desert”.

New “Whatever it takes” just popped

YouTube video by France 3 Bretagne Dissuasion nucléaire : Emmanuel Macron attendu à l’Île Longue, suivez son discours

The Marseillaise acapella beside the nuclear sub is quite something

youtu.be/Xy7LZiAL8eg?...

Trade finance nerd view:
Statements from either the U.S. or Iran are largely irrelevant.
If the cargo ship’s insurance company says you cannot go via the Strait of Hormuz, then you don’t go.

Classic authoritarian playbook, because you can.

RIP “I feel liberated. We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.” - you had a great run as the best quote in the FT from people who really would benefit from reading the FT, there's a new sheriff in town.

Kuwait has shot down more US fighter jets than Iran and I am not sure how to interpret this information.

Like, Kalshi sucks no doubt but ask yourself if you want death to trigger event contracts

Everyone wants to be paid until Kalshi CEO creates a “market” that you do not die of 3 bullets in the back and bets 100k that it will not happen.

I am big government and I approve this message.

A useful piece of context is that the government does not have access to better AI models than you (actually they are worse, because they usually don't get the latest models), though they may have different guardrails. You should view government AI capabilities through that lens.