Send us a textIn late June, Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the country’s economy had “collapsed.” There was no money left to pay for imports of necessities like food, fuel and medicine, and the country was seeking help from neighboring countries and the IMF.Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since it gained independence from Britain almost 75 years ago. In today's video we ask the question, "What Killed Sri Lanka's Economy?"Patrick's Books:Sta...
Aug 04, 2022•16 min
Send us a textIn 2013 President Xi Jinping announced the launch of his signature policy, the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest transnational infrastructure program ever undertaken by a single country. Today though, many of the loans financing these huge infrastructure projects are going bad and going bad in record numbers. Today's video looks at the Belt and Road Initiative, how the projects are going and how recent events like Russia's invasion of Ukraine are affecting debtor natio...
Jul 27, 2022•22 min
Send us a textThis Tuesday, Twitter’s sued Elon Musk to force him to honor his legally binding agreement to buy the company. Twitter asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to fast-track a trial for September. According to the complaint “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”The Delaware court will examine the case on its merits...
Jul 16, 2022•23 min
Send us a textLast week, three DeFi (decentralized finance) groups stepped in with emergency plans to protect their projects and users from economic turbulence in the face of collapsing cryptocurrency prices.These DeFi crypto networks which had pledged to put users in control ended up taking charge themselves in order to survive the ongoing crisis in the digital asset market.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: ...
Jun 25, 2022•17 min
Send us a textInflation has turned from transitory to pernicious, with some economists even raising the specter of a 1970s-style wage-price spiral. Should you reposition your investment portfolio for an inflationary environment, shifting some of your money to sectors or asset classes that tend to do well during inflationary periods? Or should you leave your investments alone and let the markets control their long-term destiny? In today’s video we look at market history to see how securities p...
Jun 17, 2022•21 min
Send us a textBlitzscaling is what you do when you need to grow really, really quickly according to Reid Hoffmann the Founder of LinkedIn, and Elon Musk’s former partner at PayPal. Blitzscaling is high-impact entrepreneurship, it’s the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor:&nb...
Jun 08, 2022•21 min
Send us a textRussian Oligarchs have become synonymous with superyachts, luxury mansions and the shady political maneuvering of post-Soviet Russia. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian billionaires like Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Potanin, Alisher Usmanov and Oleg Deripaska have been all over the news.The word Oligarch conjures up images of opportunistic, well-connected businessmen who made billions by plundering the remains of the collapsed Soviet state. But how exactly did Russia’s...
May 30, 2022•33 min
Send us a textThe widely accepted idea of a cost-of-living crisis does not begin to capture the gravity of what may lie ahead according to António Guterres, the UN secretary general. He warned earlier this week that the coming months threaten “the spectre of a global food shortage” that could last for years. The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m, to 1.6bn. Nearly 250m are on the brink of famine.Patrick's...
May 20, 2022•15 min
Send us a textThe $1.3tn cryptocurrency industry was on Thursday hit by one of its toughest challenges when stablecoin Tether — a critical cog in the market — failed to maintain its link with the US dollar. The company refuses to provide details on the Treasury holdings that back the stablecoin claiming their fear of revealing the ‘secret sauce.’Tether tumbled as low as 95.11 cents yesterday, far below the $1 peg that it seeks to maintain. Its price later recovered, but the slip-up, days afte...
May 13, 2022•22 min
Send us a textXi Jinping has reaffirmed his commitment to China’s controversial zero-Covid strategy, warning against “any slackening” in the effort and vowing to crack down on criticism of the policy despite signs of damage to the economy.“Our prevention and control policies can withstand the test of history; our measures are scientific and effective. We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, we can also win the battle to defend Shanghai,” the statement said.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The T...
May 07, 2022•19 min
Send us a textBill Hwang, founder of Archegos Capital Management, has been arrested by US authorities and charged with racketeering, fraud and market manipulation.The indictment accuses Hwang and former chief financial officer Patrick Halligan, of using Archegos as an “instrument of market manipulation and fraud” with “far-reaching consequences for other participants in the United States securities markets”.The case marks the first criminal charges against Hwang, one of the so-called Tiger Cu...
Apr 30, 2022•18 min
Send us a textElon Musk - The world’s richest man has allegedly hired the investment bank Morgan Stanley and is trying to gather financing, so he can buy Twitter for $43 billion.According to The New York Times, Musk is evaluating various packages of debt and a loan against his shares of Tesla. Apollo Global Management, an alternative asset manager, is among the parties considering offering debt financing. The equity he needs is likely to be sizable.Last week, Elon Musk, made an unsolicited of...
Apr 22, 2022•29 min
Send us a textThe sanctions on Russia’s central bank use the reserve currency status of the US dollar to punish an American adversary. Will the US dollar lose its exorbitant privilege? What currency might replace the US Dollar as a reserve currency?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/Patric...
Apr 11, 2022•22 min
Send us a textVladimir Putin has demanded payment in roubles for Russian gas sold to “unfriendly” countries, setting a deadline of 31 March for the transition.It is not clear whether he plans to tear up existing contracts that set the price in euros or dollars, but Germany, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas supplies, is not taking any chances, warning large industrial gas users that a standoff is possible and rationing is one possible outcome.In todays video we ask why payment for Rus...
Apr 02, 2022•12 min
Send us a textAs the clock runs down to Monday's sanctions deadline for Russian airlines to hand back more than 450 leased planes worth almost $10 billion, foreign lessors are fast losing hope that they will get their planes back. As the owners rushed to repossess the planes, the Kremlin moved quickly to block this by passing a law allowing foreign airplanes to be re-registered in Russia, effectively nationalizing them.Aviation was an early business casualty of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a...
Mar 26, 2022•14 min
Send us a textIn markets, there are few principles considered more important by traders than the idea that when a commitment to a deal is made, it should stand come what may. So, there was uproar in the commodities market last week over the London Metal Exchange’s decision to bring the global nickel market to a halt and cancel futures trades because of a “short squeeze” on a Chinese tycoon facing potential billions of dollars of losses.In one of the most controversial moments in its 145-year ...
Mar 19, 2022•21 min
Send us a textThe UK announced new sanctions yesterday relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, targeting seven oligarchs with links to Vladimir Putin. Among them is Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC.In today's video we try to answer three questions: Who owns Chelsea FC right now? What happens with the other Russian assets being seized around the world? And, what happens with Russian financial assets like stocks and bonds that westerners own that have stopped trading due to ...
Mar 12, 2022•19 min
Send us a textIn Today’s podcast we discuss if the west can place an embargo on Russian energy exports?Western leaders have threatened Vladimir Putin with sweeping sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine but, they have been clear that they would avoid disrupting energy supplies.Hitting energy exports is no longer as due to the brutality of Putin’s war and the idea of targeting oil and gas exports is no longer off the table — even if it damages western economies in the process.Canada - a tiny b...
Mar 05, 2022•14 min
Send us a textRussia’s invasion of Ukraine risks disrupting the export of critical commodities and rupturing supply chains. Industries from food to cars and fertilizer makers to aircraft manufacturers will be hit by disruption to exports.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinanceVisit ou...
Feb 27, 2022•18 min
Send us a textThe US President said on Thursday that the United States and Europe were united in their efforts to confront Russian aggression toward Ukraine with aggressive sanctions. However, there was one area where he suggested that there was some disagreement: SWIFT.The messaging service, called the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the world. It is viewed as a potential nuclear option in the world o...
Feb 26, 2022•8 min
Send us a textA married couple has been arrested and charged with laundering billions in Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack, as the Justice Department announced its largest financial seizure ever. Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein, and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan aka Razzlekhan or The Crocodile of Wall Street, were arrested on Tuesday in Manhattan on federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States.Federal law enforcement officials s...
Feb 13, 2022•16 min
Send us a textUS criminal authorities are gathering information on contacts among dozens of short selling hedge funds and research outfits as they investigate possible trading abuses by hedge funds. This comes after complaints from GameStop and AMC Shareholders.The Department of Justice has sent subpoenas asking for information about a list of more than two dozen firms to a smaller group of market participants. Among other things, they are asking for calendar information and communicati...
Feb 07, 2022•13 min
Send us a textChina’s Economy Is Slowing Which Could Have Big Consequences for the World.Economic output grew four percent in the last quarter, a slowdown from the previous quarter. Growth faltered as home buyers and consumers became more cautious. Construction and property sales have slumped, as the country grapples with power shortages, Covid-related restrictions, a crackdown on a range of companies, and debt troubles in its property sector. Some of those pressures could ease, but China’s e...
Jan 27, 2022•16 min
Send us a textIn the United States, the government is not the only entity legally allowed to issue money. Private citizens and businesses are allowed to do so, too, and throughout U.S. history, they have done this. This type of money is referred to as private money, and it had mostly disappeared from circulation until Bitcoin was created in 2009. Today more than eight thousand cryptocurrencies exist, and more are appearing every day.Why were private currencies so popular, and why are they com...
Jan 19, 2022•22 min
Send us a textDuring the pandemic, house prices have increased even faster than they did in the period leading up to the 2007 financial crisis, stoking concern that another dangerous housing bubble is developing. In this week's podcast we compare the current real estate market to the bubble years before the global financial crisis of 2007-2008Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate...
Jan 13, 2022•20 min
Send us a textOn Monday we saw the fraud conviction of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. This conviction we are told in the press has split Silicon Valley. Supporters worry that the spirit of entrepreneurship has been put in ‘jeopardy’ while others say she overstepped boundaries.Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and family friend of Holmes who provided early funding to Theranos, told the New York Times that the outcome made him “concerned that the spirit of entrepreneurship in America is in j...
Jan 06, 2022•15 min
Send us a textLet’s look back at the big financial events of 2021 and the lessons we learned. 2021 was an exciting year in markets, we had meme stocks, SPACs, hedge fund blow ups and the mainstreaming of crypto. The stock market went from strength to strength this year. The year started out with the short squeezes in GameStop and then AMC.As global economies bounced back from the pandemic, supply chains buckled due to shortages either of goods or people to deliver them. The squeeze on t...
Jan 01, 2022•25 min
Send us a textHaving defied internal and external economic logic by repeatedly cutting interest rates, Erdogan opted this week for a new set of measures to stabilize its currency. What should we make of Turkey’s latest currency move?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinanceVisit our web...
Dec 24, 2021•16 min
Send us a textThe Turkish lira has been in meltdown as President Erdogan rejected warnings on the dangers of his recent interest rate cuts. He vowed that there was “no going back”.The currency, which has lost about 40 per cent of its value against the dollar since the central bank started lowering borrowing costs in September, fell to a new record low of TL18.36 against the dollar on MondayTrading on Turkey’s main stock exchange was halted for the second consecutive session following a ...
Dec 21, 2021•20 min
Send us a textChinese creditors have sued Evergrande for more than $13 billion dollars in as domestic companies owed money by the property development firm race against offshore bondholders to get paid.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinanceVisit our website: www.onfinance.orgFollow P...
Dec 17, 2021•10 min
