Market behavior in the past few days should dispel anyone of the notion that the market is a rationally optimizing distribution mechanism that always gets it right. The market is a social and political construction. And it’s pretty bad and dumb in situations like these

What if this isn't just for crude prices, but them realizing that the stick isn't working, so they're trying the carrot

Oh man, the hit at Ras Laffan has taken almost 20% of output (i.e. roughly 3% of global LNG volumes) offline for *3-5 years*.

There it is

Een persistente mythe is dat extreemrechts voor “het volk” opkomt. Wat blijkt uit Parijs? Vooral de rijkere buurten stemden extreemrechts:

It's also a low plain directly abutting a mountain range. Not exactly an auspicious place to start an invasion

De enige oplossing voor de wooncrisis is sterke staatsinterventie in de woningmarkt. En dat bereik je alleen door centralisering van bevoegdheden in nationale en lokale overheden: het Singapore-model. Alleen loopt de politiek zoals altijd nog achter op de feiten nos.nl/artikel/2606...

Trump says he hasn't decided on a ground invasion yet - but Israeli govt always leaks like a sieve www.kan.org.il/content/kan-...

Nederland moet weer re-centraliseren - en de Randstad moet worden uitgebouwd tot de grootste en rijkste metropoolregio van Europa - groter en sterker dan regio Parijs

Lokale overheden hadden nooit zoveel taken moeten krijgen. Het grootste deel van de provincie is te dunbevolkt om de voordelen van schaal en agglomeratie eruit te halen. Nederland is bovendien relatief klein, met goede infrastructuur waardoor afstanden kort zijn. Decentralisatie was een grote fout..

One underappreciated fact is how everyone wants to be listened to. Take billionaires. Here you have these big industry titans worth billions of dollars. And they spend their time doing the exact same thing I'm doing: posting their crackpot theories on bluesky and twitter all day

Don't think Iran will push the envelope on this. Not in their interests to plunge themselves - or the region - into darkness. They'll have to retaliate out of strategic logic - but won't do more than necessary for deterrence www.ft.com/content/6112...

Just as the Iraq war was used to pass the "Homeland Security Act," now the Iran war will be used to pass the "Save America Act"

GABBARD REFUSES TO ANSWER LAWMAKER ON WHETHER THERE WAS AN IMMINENT NUCLEAR THREAT POSED BY IRAN

Ik ben hier echt enorm verguld mee. De Anne Vondelingprijs, zo mooi, zo eervol. Heel veel dank. En veel dank aan mijn geliefde weekblad dat mij al die tijd gunt om politieke journalistiek te bedrijven.

Crude (white) vs gold (blue) today. Everyone selling their bullion to buy barrels.

Entering a more dangerous phase of the war as Iran begins to directly target energy infrastructure Hormuz stoppage is like a kinked garden hose—you can unkink it and flow will resume Hitting infra is like taking a shotgun & blowing off the faucet to which that hose is attached

This is why Europe needs stronger, centralized anti-corruption instruments

Het is zo moeilijk om iets bij de overheid te regelen als Nederlander in het buitenland

What does it say that OpenClaw has gone mainstream in China before the West - www.ft.com/content/e242...

Can't get over the fact that they let TotalEnergies buy the name rights

Makes a few big mistakes: - China still gets Iranian crude - Reduction in launches =/= degradation of capabilities. Just means they're launching fewer missiles and drones - Glosses over comms - but public support is absolutely crucial to military success. Eg, the Tet offensive, Dien Bien Phu

Reading that he was also part of the moderate faction that opposed the succession of Khamenei. The tail wagging the etc etc

the emerging, precarious equilibrium in the Straight of Hormuz is pretty much precisely the single outcome that decades of US military and foreign policy in the Middle East sought to prevent sherwood.news/markets/iran...

Tucker Carlson and Ray Dalio have found an audience with Guancha www.guancha.cn/RaymondDalio...

Cool esb.nu/kabinet-jett...

Not to be that guy again... but solar panels and wind turbines may not need to transit through the Strait. But if you flipped a switch and cut all hydrocarbon flows today, renewable energy manufacturing would also grind to a halt. Why? Because this energy revolution, like past ones, is cumulative...

If the market can't provide sufficient housing, it's clearly failing to deliver basic societal needs. Which means government needs to step in - www.ft.com/content/f2ec...

They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

"We are not about to send European boys nine or 10,000 miles away from their homes to do what American boys ought to be doing for themselves." www.ft.com/content/35a0...

Thanks to Caixin for the first graph www.caixinglobal.com/2026-03-16/c...

The uptick in fixed asset investment in China -- and especially infrastructure FAI -- really isn't all that surprising if you look at local government bond issuance:

The Oscars have no credibility. They change their minds about who the best actor is every year.

Some of the most insightful readings during my 1st year of university were on the economic consequences of racism in the US. Black Wealth / White Wealth, Ta-Nehisi Coates, etc. They won't go away but it's a shame to see this administration wreck some of the finest scholarship the US has to offer

"oh no did you hear how ferocious Hegseth was describing that missile" muttered the revolutionary guard, reluctantly sketching out a plan for multiparty democracy

The only people that want to see Europe get involved in Iran are Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu. And the Iranians would love to sink our ships too www.ft.com/content/4dd2...

De Nederlandse belastingbetaler heeft er vooral baat bij dat het scheepsvaartverkeer door Hormuz zsm weer op gang komt - en dat bereik je niet door nu de boel weer te escaleren nos.nl/collectie/14...

“Educational institutions are like beekeepers,” according to the report. “While their principal aim is to provide education and raise people’s earnings, in the process they create an array of external benefits...society indirectly benefits, just as orchard owners indirectly benefit from beekeepers.”

Zo veel hallucinant wensdenken in Nederland/Europa. De natuurkundige eigenschappen van licht zijn ongeschikt voor computing... er is geen omweg. De enige manier om onafhankelijkheid in de chipsector te bereiken is investeren in echte chipmakers - en chiptalent. En dat gaat honderden miljarden kosten

Good piece from Zichen Wang on China's rural pension reform debate - and the broader political economy constraints on expanding consumption: "Beijing is not allergic to spending. It is just not confident about spending that gives households too much autonomy over how to use the money."

NEW: China, Black Rain, and Petrodollars The world is interconnected in more ways than meets the eye chipsgunsandmoney.substack.com/p/china-blac...

We should put it in charge of EU foreign policy

The fact that Merz made such a massive u-turn in the span of a week shows that he's way in over his head and has no clue of the forces he's dealing with, like the rest of the EU voices who just last week were calling for regime change in Iran

I still dont get why ural was trading above brent for a while there

Yeah it's not watertight. But it's a joke, and it works. Rest assured - we'll keep working on it

In a historic first for the field of bio-engineering, scientists in Germany have regrown a person's spine

Once the dust has settled, Trump's Iran war will have undone decades of NATO-backed coalition building in the Middle East. Iran will emerge stronger. Beijing's influence will grow. And Russia will laugh all the way to the bank, having filled its war chest on the back of commodity disruptions

NEW: US Treasury issued a general license for the delivery and sale of Russian oil loaded on vessels as of March 12. Moscow continues to be the single largest beneficiary of the Iran War.