Eurodollar University

In 1969 Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show and, in one particular episode, Bob Hope headlined.  After Carson finished interviewing Hope he called out his next guest, George Gobel.  To everyone's surprise the person that walked out on stage was most certainly not Gobel.  It was none other than the Italian Crooner himself, Dean Martin.  Now, as was Martin's style in those days, he was alread...

US President Harry Truman prosecuted the war to its conclusion, finishing his predecessor's near-impossible task. Then, with bitter irony, History reversed his role as "anchor" for the Second World War into "lead" for the third. As the trilogy approached its near-miraculous end decades later, one could hear an echo of a Truman slogan - “Education is our first line of defense” - in the 1980s cartoo...

How much is several?  What is a few?  If you were to put a numerical value on "probably" would it be more, or less, than "likely"?  To your podcaster's great consternation the linguistic gatekeepers of Middle English appear to have been rather disinterested about it all. And so, people are constantly late... or early!  'I thought we were to meet in a few hours?'  'No! It was several.'  'Oh, right....

Last week, current and former Federal Reserve officials offered a mea culpa, saying the timing of the 2015-18 rate hikes may have curbed a potentially quicker recovery from 2008. Apparently, seven to ten years is not enough time. Well then, if time is the problem your podcaster will take a page out of Hugh Hendry's book. Recently the early-21st century Scottish philosopher suggested the Fed would...

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Why do you seek me?"  They looked again in every part of the room, and then, seeing no one, Dorothy asked, "Where are you?" "I am everywhere but to the eyes of common mortals I am invisible. I will now seat myself upon my throne, that you may converse with me." "We have come to claim our promise, O Oz." "What promise?" asked Oz. "You promised to send me back to Ka...

Magrathea.  It is one of legendary, advanced-economy planets of the human imagination sitting along side Asimov's Trantor of the Foundation Series, and Cybertron, home of the Autobots and Decepticons.  Sure, there are other fabled worlds like Cameron's Pandora, Besson's Fhloston Paradise Herbert's Arrakis, but these are - let's be honest - emerging economies.  What made Magrathea a galactic leader...

The final setting of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale occurs well into the future, at a symposium of historians examining the Handmaid era.  Your podcaster expects a similar, future gathering of sober scholars evaluating the Time of CoVid.  They'll likely conclude it was an economic and political bankruptcy - a mathematical and moral fiasco.  Still, it wasn't all bad, and this podcaster imagi...

Life is full of problems. And when particularly irritated by them, we turn to professionals for help.  Sure, men - especially the married kind - will insist they can take care of it.  Plumbing?  No problem.  The Johnson-rod is loose in the car?  I got it.  Open wound with compound bone fracture?  Rub some dirt on it.  Still, eventually even men will get to a point when they'll ask for directions,...

Baseball.  The nation's pastime.  For well over a century the sport has nestled itself in the romantic nook of America's soul.  Its greatness captured in sentimental movies like The Natural and Field of Dreams. But light is balanced with darkness and for all its majesty the sport bears scandals and self-inflicted wounds: the 1919 Black Sox, a racial barrier.  And of course, there's that gray space...

Now, admittedly SOME commodity prices have gone up.  Half of the agricultural and livestock prices are up year-to-date.  Copper is up!  But these are the results of supply line disruptions and demand surges.  The temporary, transitory reactions to the CoVo.  NOT the persistent, broad-based multi-year inflation carried in by a monetary surge that central bankers suggest.  Almost every energy-based...

2008. Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first business meeting of what would become the best-known chemist team since Nobel-prize winners Molina, Crutzen and Rowland was not auspicious.  Pinkman wanted to cook as an artist, with chili powder. White, called Pinkman's chili-p recipe -- garbage. In-turn, Pinkman dismissed White's science; all he needed was a big jar. He was actually referring to a volumet...

Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Buddha, Confucius, Rousseau, Aristotle, Bastiat, Molinari, Cicero, Hegel, Hobbes, Kant... LL Cool J.  The contemporary philosopher sits on the social and political branch of the Western tradition.  He began releasing treatises in 1985 after collaborating with Def Jam.  Radio was his first.  Two years later, Bigger and Deffer .  But 1989's Walking with a Panther was 'too pop...

After half-a-century, some 8,000 episodes and numerous tournament of champions the American television game show Jeopardy! decided to hold its definitive contest to determine its ultimate victor.  The trial featured three accomplished champions: Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer.  The selection of these three remains one of sports' great scandals -- right up there with the Czechoslovak...

Published in 1862, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is "the novel of the century" according to David Bellos, professor of French and comparative literature at Princeton University.  When asked on The Great Books podcast what qualifies this novel to be on the show Bellos responded, "It tackles a huge range of human experience, with an enormous amount of passion.  If there ever was a great book, it mus...

Your podcaster shunned traditional university education and instead sought a guild apprenticeship. Drawn to parapsychology and the occult even as a sma' one, it was natural this podcaster's inclinations were in alchemy, phrenology, gryphography, cryptozoology and economics. However, The Inquisition and Salem Trials had somewhat narrowed opportunities in these first options; opportunities which are...

Upon its release the book was met with popular indifference.  And no wonder.  A cautionary tale about indulgence, extravagance and social upheaval?  Right into the racing heart of the Roaring Twenties and its cloche hat wearing flappers, smoking Lucky Strikes and listening to jazz?  No thanks.  When Fitzgerald asked his editor about the book's reception he was told, "Sales situation doubtful, but...

Legendary figures took on the mantle of "Mail Carrier!" including: founding father Benjamin Franklin, Wells Fargo cowboys of the Pony Express, and nice guy Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood .  In more recent decades the profession saw its reputation sullied.  Represented at one end of the spectrum by the austere, virginal, trivia-oracle Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. and at the other end the cove...

In the mid-80s parents allowed their children to watch an innocent-looking television program titled V thinking it was some kind of Sesame Street offshoot.  Imagine little Johnny and Suzy Q's horror when, instead of Reading Rainbow , they were watching a sci-fi melodrama about disguised reptilians.  The Visitors, presenting themselves as competent, benevolent beings here to teach the backwards ape...

We are informed by the financial press the agitated creation of reserves are, to capital market participants, a mix of whiskey and Felix Felicis; liquid courage and luck.  The first manifestation of the wealth effect, which will encourage households to consume and corporations to invest.  The financial market animal spirit.  The economist's Patronus Charm.  But what did the Federal Reserve do - an...

It is often said that there is, "nothing new under the sun", and with a few exceptions (e.g. negative nominal interest rates, negatively priced oil, TikTok) that is true, even with a monetary gewgaw like quantitative easing.  Japan, so as to revive its economy, has been implementing different flavors of QE for just under two decades now (that's all one really needs to know about its effectiveness)...

Will unlimited dollar swaps by the Federal Reserve solve the dollar shortage?  How does collateral shortage in the repo market affect, for example, equities?  Why does the gold price plunges when there are collateral fails in the repo market?  Does re-pledging and/or re-hypothecation take place in the repo market?  If there's liquidity crisis, why do corporations get such cheap loans still?  Inter...

Quantitative easing, like foie gras, is controversial.  The gavage-based production of duck and goose livers is considered cruel to the animal, gorged helplessly as it is in a pen.  Central banks likewise perform a force-feeding, a monetary gavage of reserves forced onto the private bank balance sheet.  What makes it a peculiar practice is that the monetary farmer expects this gorged banking goose...

In 1929 a plague struck Florida resulting in an overwhelming government response.  The consequences were not only agricultural but financial as banks, heavily exposed to the Sunshine State's horticulture sector, approached insolvency.  Bank stability, Federal Reserve responses and a suitcase stuffed with six million dollars are all part of the thrilling story.  But so is the notion of bureaucratic...

The Earl of the Eurodollar Jeff Snider ( @JeffSnider_AIP ), Chief Investment Officer at Alhambra Investments and Emil Kalinowski ( @EmilKalinowski ) discuss the four topics. First, what happened this past week when the price of oil to be delivered in May was priced at a negative $50(ish) dollars per barrel?  And much more importantly than the bizarre price, what does the back-half of the oil futur...

Jeff Snider, Chief Investment Officer of Alhambra Investments and Baron of the Balance Sheet @JeffSnider_AIP and Emil Kalinowski, Not Hard on the Eyes @EmilKalinowski. The World Trade Organization offered two outlooks for 2020-21, one that is not terrible and the other distinctly so.  Jeff and Emil discuss how getting back to previous levels would be an impressive achievement in itself and how it...