The whole “Fed is failing” narrative baffles me. Just two years ago we were staring at a financial, economic and humanitarian abyss, and extremely strong action helped prevent an even worse cataclysm. If price is high single digit inflation for a few years that seems worth it?
Should they have tightened earlier? Perhaps. But I struggle to see how a Fed hiking sooner would have done much if anything to dampen the inflationary forces we’re seeing now. And people forget the bond market until recently was 💯agreeing with Fed.
And I know people get angry with the “actually, inflation is good” argument. But in a world awash with high debt that has been desperately trying to engineer an inflation-wage spiral for over a decade, actually finally succeeding might not be a bad thing?
The FT paywall is down today! So here is some of the ace work of me and my colleagues for you to sample (and perhaps consider a full subscription). #FTfreetoday
In awe of a lot of the stuff produced by my colleagues over the past year, and I’m a bit worried about leaving some sterling stuff out. So here is a *very* brief, non-comprehensive list of articles I remember off the top of my head, a mix of my own work and others.
@rmilneNordic piece on the survivors and aftermath of Utøya - one of the worst mass murders in history - was haunting and touching. ft.com/content/be85f8…
The frenzied private capital party is totally understandable, but will leave many investors bitterly disappointed and could cause broader long-term economic problems. on.ft.com/3ma2ihc
I hate to be *this guy* but…
Even as someone who has long thought the public-private line will blur more and more (and im not entirely against it) the wildness of the investor frenzy for private markets is a little unnerving. Rock up with a growth equity/PE/direct lending/VC fund and investors be like
The spark behind the birth of Vanguard passed away earlier this month, aged 88. Nick Thorndike might not be as famous as Jack Bogle, Vanguard’s actual founder, but he (inadvertently) played a pivotal role in its genesis. Short thread of recondite financial history: 1/n
Back in the 1950s, Nick Thorndike was a precocious fund manager at Fidelity, mentored by Ned Johnson himself. In 1960 he and three Bostonian friends set up their own shop, Thorndike, Doran, Paine and Lewis, which kicked arse in the “go-go” boom of the 1960s.
The go-go years were much tougher for more conservative investment groups, such as Walter Morgan’s Wellington. It ran a big, successful bond-and-stocks fund, but in the 60s boom people wanted GROWTH, not a boring “balanced” fund.
Just $93m is enough to lift bitcoin price by 1%, estimates Bank of America. Gold needs about 20x that net inflow.
The smattering of institutional investor/corporate announcements over the past year have helped pump the price of bitcoin, but Grayscale remains the dominant holder.
For decentralised money its pretty dang centralised. About 95% of all bitcoin are controlled by just 2.4% of accounts.