The Hidden Bill Behind Europe’s Defense Spending Boom
Europe's rearmament is being financed out of the welfare state, not economic growth, and different governments are settling that bill in different currencies: Germany...
Norway’s $2.3 Trillion Fund Is Cutting Treasuries. Here’s Who’s Left Holding Washington’s Debt
TODAY’S NUMBERS $80bn (Norway fund’s proposed Treasury cut) · 4.79% (US 10-year Treasury yield) · 289t (record Q2 central-bank gold buying) Sovereign money is...
Why Korea’s “Nuclear Missile Drill” Isn’t Aimed at North Korea
Freedom Edge 26's nuclear-capable bomber component, paired with unusually explicit official language about North Korea's “nuclear and missile threats,” is not deterrence signaling aimed...
How Two EU Vetoes Are Quietly Handing Russia a Win in the Sanctions War
TODAY'S NUMBERS
$4,334 (gold, per ounce, near record) · $200bn (Russian reserves frozen at Euroclear) · Sept. 15 (deadline for the EU's Russia sanctions list...
Venezuela’s Oil Deal Has a Guyana Problem — and an OPEC One
The August 28th oil deal's least-noticed effects run through two files nobody has read together: it gives Washington, for the first time, a direct...
Iran, Oil and a Hawkish Fed: Why the Dollar Is Winning the Week and Losing the Decade
TODAY'S NUMBERS 99.73 Dollar Index (DXY) · 4.81% US 10-year Treasury yield · $4,304 Gold, per ounce All three are rising together — the...
Regime Change, Itemized: Inside the Venezuela Oil Deal
The 65-billion-barrel Venezuela oil deal is not proof that regime change was sold with a resource contract attached as its explicit precondition — the...
Is BRICS Really Ditching the Dollar? What the Data Shows
BRICS de-dollarization is real but narrow: it is happening bilaterally, mostly under Russia and Iran's sanctions duress, while the instruments meant to make it...
Beijing’s Currency Playbook: Cap the Yuan, Buy the Gold, Build the Pipes Around the Dollar
TODAY’S NUMBERS 6.7828 (Monday’s PBOC yuan fix, near-flat) · 21 (months of PBOC gold buying, a record) · <3% (yuan’s share of SWIFT payments,...
Iran’s Kharg Island: The Strategic Hub at the Heart of Its Oil Industry
Oil prices increased due to rising tensions involving Iran, sparked by a U.S. President Donald Trump's claim regarding Kharg Island oil hub, which an...