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Europe's energy prices are going through the roof and it's already making waves...

In Spain, PM Sanchez promised to reduce energy taxes AND 'redirect' company profits to reduce energy bills

This sweeping measure hasn't gone down well...

Nuclear power companies threaten to shut down plants if Spanish government takes action on soaring bills

The energy sector says it will be ‘impossible to continue’ if their excess gains are cut as part of the raft of measures aimed at reducing the cost of electricity for consumers

EL PAÍSMiguel Ángel Noceda

Italy is also looking to take action:

Italy eying power bill reform as energy costs soar - sources

Italy is looking to review the way electricity bills are calculated in an effort to curb prices at a time when energy costs are running high, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

ReutersStephen Jewkes

"Bro, it's just the commodities supercycle, everything's been going up"

Let's compare YTD Lumber & Iron Ore (blue) vs Coal & Nat. Gas (orange) 👇

Clearly there's something else going on here...

It's usually not just one thing either...

Maybe it's the EU and their mechanism to punish polluters with higher carbon prices... 👇

Maybe it's a gas supply crunch...

Concerns about tight supplies started with a prolonged cold winter that drained natural gas storage. Normally this would be refilled over the summer when demand for heating largely evaporates. But storage filling has not happened at the pace traders would have liked in 2021.

Russia has been sending less gas to Europe, for reasons fiercely debated in the industry. These range from Russia’s need to refill its own storage to suspicions that it is trying to pressure European governments, including Germany, to approve the start-up of the highly controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Surely, Russia would NEVER resort to such underhand tactics...

Kremlin: quick launch of Nord Stream 2 would balance Europe’s gas prices

A rapid startup of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany would balance high gas prices in Europe, including on spot market, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

ReutersReuters

Overdependence on unreliable renewables such as wind power just aren't going to cut it.

Hopefully the uproar over increasing energy bills will force policymakers to accept the inevitable... 👇👇👇

Sooner or later, we’re going nuclear

Nuclear fusion is now more of an engineering + business problem than a science problem Emerging Markets vulnerable? What’s SNAPening?

MacrodesiacTim Vollans

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"COT positioning suggests that..."

You often see the COT report used as an explanation for a trade idea, but it really isn't anything magical.

While it's definitely something worth monitoring, it's just another tool in the box.

Take the recent AUD example.

Iron ore prices are falling, Australia's taken an economic hit with the slow vaccine rollout and there's every chance of a double dip recession, especially with China's economic issues.

Traders have had good reason to get shorter and shorter the AUD in recent months, and yet... the AUD has rallied over the past couple of weeks.

How can traders distinguish signal from noise? 👇

Understanding The COT Report

It only matters when it matters. The COT report is most useful at market extremes, mainly when used together with other indicators/reasoning.

MacrodesiacTim Vollans

It only matters when it matters.

The COT report is most useful at market extremes, mainly when used together with other indicators/reasoning.

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Tax The Rich, Start A Socialist Utopia...

AOC's statement dress has generated a huge wave of coverage. 👇

AOC’s “Tax The Rich Dress” – Ultimate Fashion Statement Or Display Of Hypocrisy

It certainly didn’t take long for the dress and AOC’s statement to trend on Twitter

ForbesPeter Suciu

Is it a fashion statement? Is it a display of hypocrisy? No, it's Luxury Beliefs!

Rob Henderson has done superb work on this and why these strange beliefs have become so common...

The 'old' status symbols have lost their prowess.

Any idiot can wear a '£545 Louis Vuitton bucket hat'... 👇

Nah, luxury beliefs are the status symbols now...

Hence the consumption, or even the sight of such goods, is inseparable from an odious suggestion of the lower levels of human life.” The affluent do not want to be seen with “common” goods. They view them as distasteful.

Today, it’s not just common goods they view as distasteful—it’s beliefs too. The affluent, dreading an “odious” designation, resist displaying commonplace beliefs. Those beliefs are for the little people. Instead, the upper class want to be seen displaying luxury beliefs.

Give it a read 👇

Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class—A Status Update

I was bewildered when I encountered a new social class at Yale four years ago: the luxury belief class. My confusion wasn’t surprising given my unusual background. When I was two years old, my mother was addicted to drugs and my father abandoned us. I grew up in multiple

QuilletteRob Henderson