Socialism American Characteristics
Socialism with American Characteristics America spent 250 years insisting the state had no business owning the means of production. It is marking the anniversary by buying them. The most consequential financial event of this year was not a rate decision, nor a two-trillion-dollar rocket clearing the launchpad. It was quieter than either. Over the past […]
Crude Distinction
A central bank can raise the price of money. It cannot raise the supply of oil. On Thursday the European Central Bank spent an afternoon doing the first in the earnest hope of affecting the second, and the distance between those two ambitions is where the next six months of European assets will be settled. […]
Drawing Conclusions
Vigo with a flag Cape Verde is an archipelago of barely 525,000 souls, a scatter of volcanic rock in the Atlantic with a population smaller than the Spanish city of Vigo. This month, on its first appearance at a World Cup, it walked out against Spain — European champions, co-favourites, the whole imperial weight of […]
Space stocks to the moon
On the evening of 28 May, residents along Florida’s space coast felt their homes shake before they understood why. A New Glenn rocket, fuelled and tethered to Launch Complex 36 for a routine static-fire test, had detonated. The blast occurred during a standard procedure in which engines are ignited while the rocket remains secured to […]
Computer Says Yes
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Last week we argued the cloud is bolted to the ground. This week: what the ground is made of. The agentic re-rating of server CPUs is real, well-documented and largely behind us. Intel’s data-centre revenue rose 22 per cent in the first quarter, and the shares rose 23.6 per cent in a day […]
Accounts Payable
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OpenAI’s revenue and user growth have come in below its own targets, and its finance chief has reportedly warned that the company may struggle to pay its computing contracts if the shortfall persists. Its largest compute supplier promptly vouched for it — which is what creditors do. The AI infrastructure boom is not […]
Energising Europe: A Stock Take On Europe’s Rapid Progression Towards Its Renewable Targets
In an era defined by the imperative to combat climate change, Europe is emerging as a beacon of progress in the transition to renewable energy. The ambitious goals set by the European Union (EU) and its 27 member states underscore a collective commitment to reshape the energy landscape, reduce carbon emissions, and embrace sustainability. As […]
Climate Finance
The Promise of Synthetic Fuels: Driving towards a Just and Sustainable Transportation INTRODUCTION Until recently, the idea of a carbon-neutral combustion engine seemed like a distant dream. However, emerging technologies and innovations are bringing us closer to making this dream a reality. The key lies in the development of synthetic or carbon-neutral fuels, which not […]
Superficially Sentient and the Magnificent Bribe
In a remarkably prescient piece, the social critic Earnest Mumford in ‘Technics and the Nature of Man’, unnervingly anticipates a scenario which could easily pass for today, over half a century ago – long before smart phones or CoPilot. Whilst lengthy, it is worth reproducing some of his sentiments; The last century, we all realise, […]
Santa Falls
As widely anticipated, the Federal Reserve reduced the official interest rate by 0.25% in the last meeting on the year. What was perhaps less widely anticipated was the market reaction, a historic sell off by some measures, in response to Jerome Powell’s determinedly ‘hawkish nature’. Financial markets had been pricing in 4 interest rate cuts […]