I come at this from the perspective of independent traders, small funds, CTAs. Institutional banks etc. grow sluggish, stale with scale. Philosophers and mathematicians, visionaries and schemers strive and struggle, seeking alpha in their own ways. Plumbing the depths of the world, grappling with transcendent industrial civilization and humanity’s destiny, the financial markets are the most multidisciplinary and rewarding field today.

That’s destiny, will, striving, exploring, “mathematics, the secrets of the universe. Life is firing with its beauty, its incredible detail!”

A Few Hours Researching Transit - Dec 2024

A curious hour exploring energy economic’s impact on the Rust Belt and US industrial migration

Equinox Gold - Jun 2024

2.2B market cap, 1.4B debt, forward P/E under 2

Investing in Coal - Jan 2024

Bad for the environment, good for our wallets.

Sectors and Economic Structure - Jan 2024

tl;dr: I struggle to find a golden thread between measuring national priorities and finding profitable insights.

Energy Fueled Dreams - Jan 2024 -

What utopias await us with more energy?

A Fascinating Subfield of Economics - Oct 2023

I’m absolutely fascinated by the thoughts of authors like Vaclav Smil, Steve Keen, Anas Alhajji, Rule Rule etc. but would like to really learn more. Unfortunately, their Public figures tend to rehash talking points. published material repeats itself over and over. There are terms which roughly cover it:

Narcostates - Oct 2023

The political economy of narcostates

Bullish on Developing Macro - Mar 2023 -

Dedollarization and the Green Transition

On Vaclav Smil - Jan 2023

Interesting guy.

Falling Oil Production - Feb 2022

Brazil is the only country in the world who expects to produce more in 5 or 10 years and is making the required investments. Elsewhere, there has been precious little capital expenditure (outside of fracking) for over a decade beyond what’s needed to maintain current production levels. Keeping production even requires a lot of energy and money - which hasn’t actually been going in very much. The super majors all plan to reduce production every year from now on. Some national oil companies are aiming at maintaining levels (or in Brazil’s case raising). Private US and Canadian companies are also planning to increase.

Arabian National Bank of Hedjaz - Jun 2005 - Peter Symes

The bank of Hejaz printed, but never issued notes, which featured scenes from other countries.

Gulf Rupees - A History - Jun 2003 - Peter Symes

Gulf Arab countries used the Indian Rupee, until independent India issued them a new Gulf rupee.