NEW: we’ve updated our excess mortality tracker, the gold-standard measure for Covid deaths, allowing like-for-like comparisons btwn countries UK had 54,000 more deaths than usual in March & April vs 30,000 reported Covid deaths at the time Free to read: ft.com/content/a26fbf…

"When the pandemic hit, then, Britain was not the strong, successful, resilient country it imagined, but a poorly governed and fragile one. The truth is, Britain was sick before it caught the coronavirus," writes Tom McTague theatlantic.com/international/…

CDS auction records continue. Three more on the docket this year, bringing the 2020 total to 17, the most since 2011 (8 more and it's the most since the GFC). 19.3% average auction recovery rate, lowest on record Story from June via Risk.Net: risk.net/investing/deri…

"Have you been arrested yet?" This is the tale of the spies, the hacking, the put-up job, the sock puppets, the fancy restaurants, the digital handbag and the many, many professionals taking Wirecard's money to fight and intimidate its critics ft.com/content/745e34…

The Federal Reserve (via BlackRock) has slowed its bond and ETF buying dramatically. Total at $12.5bn, but last ETF purchase was on July 23. Since then, an average $21.7m in bonds purchases each day. Busiest day remains June 17

Trump “is personally responsible for loans and other debts totalling $421m w/ most of it coming due within 4 years. Should he win re-election his lenders could be placed in the unprecedented position of weighing whether to foreclose on a sitting president” nytimes.com/interactive/20…

"This was how you report when you take your sources and your work dead seriously, and make no real distinction between your reporting and the rest of your life. I learned from her never to treat it as a game" BenYT on the jouranlist we all want to be nytimes.com/2020/11/08/bus…

'Big Bang'? SOFR volumes are a bit underwhelming following CCP discounting switch...for now. (via Ben St. Clair) risk.net/derivatives/77…

Credit-default swaps are so pre-pandemic. Jane Street is trading options on fixed income ETFs instead. Via Ben St. Clair risk.net/derivatives/77…

Interesting write up from Ben St. Clair on the SOFR First initiative. Barclays says they are just quoting and trading SOFR spreads in the interdealer market. According to the numbers, they can't be doing a ton of business. Most trades still in LIBOR. risk.net/derivatives/78…

Asset managers are introducing environmental, social and governance considerations into their choice of trading counterparties #ESG hubs.li/Q011VdDW0

Pimco loses $400m on failed Russia CDS bets great scoop from Ben St. Clair risk.net/derivatives/79…

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After spending over $400 million buying #FX #options, Morgan Stanley Investment Management's bet on a weaker Chinese yuan may finally pay off, writes Ben St. Clair risk.net/derivatives/79…

So are we heading for Austerity 2.0, with huge public spending cuts to fill the ‘eye-watering black hole’ (copyright HM Treasury) in the public finances? Well (a) this is certainly not inevitable or necessary; and (b) the Govt is having you on. A thread./1 theguardian.com/business/2022/…

So soon after the Bank of England raised interest rates while warning we’re heading for the longest recession on record, it’s extraordinary to hear talk to ‘fiscal consolidation’ (ie spending cuts and/or tax rises) on top of that.

In Europe, people could face energy blackouts this winter. To understand what is at stake, the Financial Times explores how the European energy grid actually works 🧵 on.ft.com/3Fcg3p6

NEW: Britain’s grim winter of strikes, falling incomes and a worsening NHS crisis is not some unfortunate series of events It’s the inevitable result of a decade of Tory austerity that steadily weakened the state’s capacity to respond to shocks enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/c540270… Thread:

The take away from the IPCC report is that not only limiting global warning to 1.5 C is out of reach, but increasingly 2.0 C is looking beyond reach too. Read the title of the chart: "... involves *rapid*, *deep*, and in most cases *immediate* greenhouse gas emission reductions"

Some argued ambiguity in the AT1 docs would put them on level with the CDS reference obligation. The Determinations Committee disagreed risk.net/derivatives/79…