Italy's horse of a different color

  The NATO that I used to know There is now an avowed crisis in NATO, an organization that has been unable to inspire confidence in the citizens it is supposed to protect. Pity it does such a good job to protect its supposed reputation, but that's bureaucracy for you. This article has been inspired by a Wall Street Journal piece which is singularly below the usual high standard of journalistic integrity they apply, and that can be found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-countries-defense-spending-europe-russia-ukraine-2cae6723?st=ei8f5zo4ptb4txq While the article quotes official sources the message is deceptive: on reading it one would think European members of NATO have largely mended their miserly ways and are now serious about being actually able to defend themselves, while reality projects a very different message. There are points that are particularly misleading so I will parse it. “ Some 23 of 32 NATO member countries are on track to spend at least 2% of t...

  The Ebbing Tide: is the financial system ready for STEADY positive rates? disclaimer: This is not financial advice, your mileage may vary. there is in my opinion a little misconception about how “resilient”, to further abuse a misunderstood word, Equity markets are. Especially if one, like me, “Pivoted” to bonds in the early stages. Specifically, I want to introduce you to a frame of reference I use in my day job, i.e., checking equity indices against bond yields. This in Europe has very interesting outcomes. Data are sourced from Bloomberg unless otherwise stated, but they are widely available elsewhere for those who want to dabble with spreadsheets, which is all the expertise required to replicate my results. So, let's start. People are making a big fuss now about inflation, but the truth is that apart from marketing reasons, asset managers should have very little interest in the subject matter per se. In fact not only all the income or profit is nominal, but inflation is t...