Favorite Finance Articles and Talks

If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.
— Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.
— Thomas Gray

Once one starts down the dark path, forever will it dominate their destiny. Consume them it will.
— Yoda, Star Wars

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Last updated: August 8th, 2020. But a more in depth update of this website is due, especially a seperate page on energy. If you follow through with only one link from this page, make it this one, i.e. Nathan Hagens’ paper: “Economics for the future – Beyond the superorganism” or my Twitter-summary of it. It explains – among many things, the deep connection between finance and energy.

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Welcome to the dark but exhilarating world of finance. A world where massive egos control the world pretending to do God’s work. Where the push of a button can collapse whole nations. A world where even a hint of honesty would cause an imminent implosion of the system and as a result, can-kicking is the status quo with shuffling paper in the most creative ways being the default solution each time the can gets stuck too much.

Finance is, in my opinion, the ultimate fulcrum to understand the world. Unfortunately, due to its high complexity (at least on the surface), it seems most people completely ignore the subject. The confrontation with possibly high negativity in following deep rabbit holes might kill the interest for the few remaining. Even friends working in finance admit that they often don’t understand a word in some Zero Hedge articles — my favorite source of financial information (and also for geopolitics, but unfortunately borderline on many political topics and absolutely terrible on climate — I also avoid most guest posts). As a result, I do not expect that many will find this page useful. I encourage anyone with a hint of interest in the subject to try out a Real Vision TV 14 day free trial and to start with my favorite list of RV talks. Other than that, here are some excellent talks:

Other than Zero Hedge, I enjoy reading everything from Artemis Capital (c.f. my favorite paper page), Zoltan Pozsar (in particular all the Global Money Notes issues, c.f. also last link), Bloomberg New Energy (BNEF), Deep Throat IPO and Luke Gromen. And spend a significant amount of time on Twitter.

Here is my non-exhaustive list of favorite Zero Hedge articles, with of course the usual “end of the world” and conspiracy theory touch. (ZH recently moved their website, some old articles can now only be found on the Way Back Machine.)

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

  1. And Now, A Present: “Are The Brokers Broken?” – A Reprise [Dec. 2011]
  2. 2017 Greatest Hits: The Most Popular Articles Of The Past Year And A Look Ahead [Dec. 2017] [Mainly the article itself, not the linked articles]
  3. Kyle Bass: Fallacies Such As MMT Are “Leading The Sheep To Slaughter” And “We Believe War Is Inevitable” [Nov. 2012]
  4. Artemis On Volatility At World’s End: Deflation, Hyperinflation And The Alchemy Of Risk [Apr. 2012] [And all of Artemis Capital’s other must-read papers]
  5. Meet The Secretive Group That Runs The World [Apr. 2015] [Bonus Article]
  6. Our Money Is Dying [Jul. 2012]
  7. Things That Make You Go Hmm… Like The Death Of The Petrodollar, And What Comes After [Dec. 2016] (or full video presentation here)
  8. Gold, Yuan, & Why China’s Monetary Policy Must Change [Nov. 2018]
  9. “Down The Rabbit Hole” – The Eurodollar Market Is The Matrix Behind It All [Apr. 2020]
  10. Guest Post: How Hyperinflation Will Happen [Aug. 2010]
  11. Is Capitalism Dead Or Merely Dying? [Oct. 2017]
  12. The ‘Hyper-Crash’ Is Coming – It’s Not The Everything Bubble, It’s The Global Short Volatility Bubble [June 2017]
  13. Why Is JPMorgan’s Gold Vault, The Largest In The World, Located Next To The New York Fed’s? [Mar. 2013]
  14. Where The Levered Corporate “Cash On The Sidelines” Is Truly Going [Nov. 2012]
  15. The Full Story Behind Bloomberg’s Attempt To “Unmask” Zero Hedge [Apr. 2016]
  16. Who Spends The Most Dollars Lobbying Washington, DC? [Mar. 2013]
  17. Mario Draghi Responds To Zero Hedge: “There Is No Plan B” [Apr. 2013]
  18. When The Head Of The European Central Bank Lies To Zero Hedge On The Record: Presenting Europe’s “Plan Z” [Mar. 2014]
  19. EU’s “Lyin'” Jean-Claude Juncker Keeps “Little Black Book” Of People Who Betray Him [Feb. 2016]
  20. Five Years Of Glorious IMF “Hockey Stick” Comedy [July 2015]
  21. How The Federal Reserve Bailed Out The World [Oct. 2009]
  22. The Bronze Swan Arrives: Is The End Of Copper Financing China’s “Lehman Event”? [Mar. 2013]
  23. Chart Of The Day: How China’s Stunning $15 Trillion In New Liquidity Blew Bernanke’s QE Out Of The Water [Nov. 2013]
  24. Did “China” Just Buy The Most Important Company In The World? [July 2016]
  25. This Is How Easy It Is To Manipulate The Entire Stock Market [Apr. 2018]
  26. Forget ‘Fake News’, Here’s ‘Fake Markets’ – How MbS Spent Billions To Prop Up Saudi Stocks [Dec. 2018]
  27. China Is Building An Army Of Worker Robots [Apr. 2016]
  28. Bill Gross Warns “Central Bankers Are Destroying The Engine Of The Real Economy” [Aug. 2016]
  29. Grand Theft Market: High-Frequency Frontrunning CME Edition [May 2013]
  30. How The Fed’s Facebook PR Campaign Went Terribly Wrong [Aug. 2016]
  31. Fed’s John Williams Opens Mouth, Proves He Has No Clue About Modern Money Creation [July 2012]
  32. Pair Trade Opportunity Of The Year: Long European, Short Chinese Caterers [Mar. 2012]
  33. “War Is A Racket” – Lockheed Martin Sees Jump In Missile-Defense Inquiries [Aug. 2017]
  34. How A Previously Secret Collateral Transformation With The Bank Of Italy Prevented Monte Paschi’s Nationalization [Feb. 2013]
  35. Modern Market Alchemy Explained: Converting Junk Debt Into Supersafe Treasurys Out Of Thin Air [Feb. 2013]
  36. The Unspoken, Festering Secret At The Heart Of Shadow Banking: “Self-Securitization” … With Central Banks [Nov. 2013]
  37. Desperately Seeking $11.2 Trillion In Collateral, Or How “Modern Money” Really Works [May 2013]
  38. The Fed Has Another $3.9 Trillion In QE To Go (At Least) [Sept. 2012]
  39. Gold Price “Manipulated For A Decade”, Repeatedly Slammed Lower, Bloomberg Reports [Feb. 2014]
  40. Here Is The FT’s Gold Price Manipulation Article That Was Removed [Feb. 2014]
  41. European Ponzi Goes Full Retard As EFSF Found To Monetize… Itself [Nov. 2011]
  42. The Exter Inverted Pyramid – A Refresher [Apr. 2012]
  43. It’s Settled: Central Banks Trade S&P500 Futures [Sept. 2012]
  44. A Visual Simplification Of The CDS Market [Mar. 2012]
  45. The Ultimate “All-In” Trade [Dec. 2011]
  46. And Who or What the Hell is Titlos PLC Anyhow? [Feb. 2010]
  47. An Unexpected Warning From Goldman Sachs: “Markets Themselves” Will Cause The Next Crash [Mar. 2018]
  48. “This Is Much Larger Than Subprime” – Here Are The Legendary Hedge Funds Fighting The Chinese Central Bank [Jan. 2016]
  49. Kyle Bass Asks If China Is Fine, Why Are They So Worried About “Some Hedge Fund Manager In Texas” [Feb. 2016]
  50. Global Central Banks Are All-In: QE Running At Record $180 Billion Per Month (And Rising) [July 2016]
  51. Ken Rogoff Warns “China Will Be At The Center Of The Next Global Financial Crisis” [Jan. 2018]
  52. The Stunning Comparisons Between The “Flash Crash” Of August 24, 2015 And May 6, 2010 [Aug. 2015]
  53. “This Has Only Happened Twice In History” – Goldman Asks “Should We Worry?” [Nov. 2018](VIX related)
  54. Want To Boost Market Liquidity? Just Let It Rain… No Really [Oct. 2016]
  55. Goldman’s Global Domination Is Now Complete As Its Mark Carney Takes Over Bank Of England [Nov. 2012]
  56. Goldman Is Allowing Its Clients To Bet On The Next Financial Crisis [Oct. 2017]
  57. Google’s “SkyNet” Robots Are All Grown Up, And Terrifying [Feb. 2016]
  58. How Central Banks Use Gold Swaps To “Boost” Their Gold Holdings [Nov. 2014]
  59. What Goldbugs Have Been Waiting For: Goldman’s New Primer On Gold [Oct. 2017]
  60. Shocking Government Report Finds $6.5 Trillion In Taxpayer Funds “Unaccounted For” [Aug. 2016]
  61. Subordination 101: A Walk Thru For Sovereign Bond Markets In A Post-Greek Default World [Jan. 2012]
  62. $707,568,901,000,000: How (And Why) Banks Increased Total Outstanding Derivatives By A Record $107 Trillion In 6 Months [Nov. 2011]
  63. Wall Street Banks Admit They Rigged CDS Prices Too [Oct. 2015]
  64. “Do You Read Zero Hedge?” A Review of Zero Hedge’s Most Popular Articles of [All Time|2009] [Dec. 2009]
  65. Bernanke’s S&P500 Year End Price Target: 1,950 [Sept. 2013]
  66. Here Comes The Debt Tsunami: Goldman Warns Treasury Issuance To More Than Double In 2019 [Dec. 2018]
  67. How Britain Calculates Its Hooker “GDP Boost”: 60,879 Prostitutes x 25 Clients Per Week x £67.16 Per Visit [Mar. 2014]
  68. Krugman Goes To Japan, Scolds Abe For Worrying About Quadrillion Yen Debt Pile, Leaves [Mar. 2016]
  69. As Broke Bankia Runs Out Of Toasters, It Has A Bold Solution: A Spiderman Beach Towel [Mar. 2012] (and the follow up one day later)
  70. Meet The 28 Other Money Market Funds That Broke The Buck After (And Before) Lehman [Oct. 2013]
  71. Five Years Of Glorious IMF “Hockey Stick” Comedy [July 2015]
  72. How Hedge Funds Are Preparing For This Weekend’s “Catastrophe” [Aug. 2017]
  73. These Are The 9 Zero Hedge Charts Showing “Obama’s Recovery” That Angered The Washington Post [June 2016]
  74. Bernanke Shocker: “No Rate Normalization During My Lifetime” [May 2014]
  75. Pentagon Buries Study Revealing $125 Billion In Waste On “Bloated Bureaucracy” [Dec. 2016]
  76. Trickle-Down QE [Feb. 2015]
  77. Illinois Unveils Another Shocker: Sell A Record $107 Billion In Debt To Fund Insolvent Pensions [Jan. 2018]
  78. An “Audible Gasp” Was Heard When The Chicago Fed Unveiled Its “Solution” To The Pension Problem [May 2018]
  79. An Inside Look At The Shocking Role Of Gold In The “New Normal” [Dec. 2014]
  80. Presenting The World’s Biggest Hedge Fund You Have Never Heard Of [Sept. 2012]
  81. Florida Teachers’ Pension Fund Is Long AR-15 Gunmaker Stock [Feb. 2018]
  82. Something “Unexpected” Happened When Seattle Raised The Minimum Wage [Aug. 2016]
  83. Why The Fate Of The World Economy Is In The Hands Of China’s Housing Bubble [Mar. 2017]
  84. BIS Finds Global Debt May Be Underreported By $14 Trillion [Sept. 2017]
  85. China’s Government Is Expected To Buy 24% Of All Residential Real Estate For Sale In 2017 [Oct. 2017]
  86. China To Take Over Kenya’s Largest Port Over Unpaid Chinese Loan [Dec. 2018]
  87. What Few Expect: Inflation Will Surge, Destabilizing The Status Quo [Oct. 2017]
  88. Here Are China’s Five Options For “Nuclear” Trade War [Apr. 2018]
  89. How China Became The World’s Number One International Financial Donor [May 2018]
  90. How China Colonized An Entire Continent Without Firing A Single Shot [June 2019]
  91. How China’s “Pragmatic Authoritarianism” And Russia’s “Illiberal Democracy” Have Averted “The End Of History” [Apr. 2018]
  92. “The Markets Implications Are Enormous”: Trade War With China Is Not About Trade But About Geopolitics [May 2019]
  93. As SoftBank Urges WeWork To Shelve Its IPO, It’s Time To Think The Unthinkable [Sept. 2019]
  94. In Ominous Warning, Ray Dalio Says The Current Period Is Just Like 1935-1945 [Aug. 2019]
  95. Central Bank Issues Stunning Warning: “If The Entire System Collapses, Gold Will Be Needed To Start Over” [Oct. 2019]
  96. “Things Will Never Be The Same Again”: Here Are 20 Questions As Central Banks Admit Defeat [Aug. 2019]
  97. Fed Will Not Disclose Which Banks Are Receiving Repo Cash For At Least Two Years [Nov. 2019]
  98. “The Fed Was Suddenly Facing Multiple LTCMs”: BIS Offers A Stunning Explanation Of What Really Happened On Repocalypse Day [Dec. 2019]
  99. “It’s About To Get Very Bad” – Repo Market Legend Predicts Market Crash In Days [Dec. 2019] (And the Fed’s response two days later)
  100. 944 Trillion Reasons Why The Fed Is Quietly Bailing Out Hedge Funds [Jan. 2020]
  101. 992 Billion Reasons Why The Fed Needs Another Market Crash In The Next Few Weeks [Apr. 2020]
  102. World’s Most Bearish Hedge Fund Manager: “If It’s In Zerohedge, Then Central Banks Have Already Devised A Plan To Stop If From Happening” [May 2020]
  103. Rabobank Asks How Bloomberg Would Have Covered WW2 [Sept. 2020](my tweet)
  104. The Next Normal: Is Central-Bankism Transitioning To Fascism [Sept. 2020] (my tweet)

An excellent – though quite sarcastic – Venezuela coverage (in chronological order):

Currently working on a list of favorite old classics about Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation from 2008. While waiting, you may find this one amusing:

Middle East and Africa series:

Some Bonus material:

Including the plot for the next James Bond movie:

Exclusive: “And It’s Gone… It’s All Gone” – The One Gold Scandal That Goes To The Very Top [Dec. 2015]
The Mystery Of Dubai’s Vaporized Gold: The Plot Thickens [Dec. 2015]
“The Syria Campaign”-Redux: Inside The Shadowy PR Firm That’s Lobbying For Regime-Change In Syria [Apr. 2018]

And on the topic of Helicopter Money:

(Not directly related to finance, but some of my favorite tech-related ZH article can be found here.)

Although I am – as you can probably tell – a Zero Hedge fan, this does not mean that I agree with everything written there (sadly and especially not anything related to the climate crisis) or even in the articles listed above – on the contrary. It is, in my opinion, a good mental exercise to continually question your beliefs and read about things you may find questionable.

If you are still unsure how to read ZH, this may also help you.

P.S.: This page is getting continually updated. Next also: old classics from 2009. Stay tuned. And neat lists in Google Sheets.