Interview: Izabella Kaminska

Mar 22, 2021

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Welcome to Making Sense. Jeff Snider and I are joined by a very special guest, Izabella Kaminska who has accomplished many accomplished things, including being the editor of FT Alphaville, the Financial Times blog. Though to refer to Alphaville as a mere blog, would be a gross disservice. No ladies and gentlemen, it is much more than that. It is the modern-day equivalent of the 17th-century London coffeehouse.

Both, forums for transactions, spirited debate, and the exchange of information, ideas - and lies! - though Alphaville is pointing them out for our benefit. Strangers, no matter what their social standing or political allegiance, are always welcomed into lively convivial company. The topics, then like now: the stock exchange, insurance, auctioneering, politics, arts... Then? The 'not-so-old' masters. Now? NFTs. Both the contents of the 17th-century coffee mug and Alphaville could be described the same way: "'black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love' and shot through with grit."

--------SUMMARY--------
PART 01: Financial journalism, the necessity of skepticism, public distrust of media, press reticence to cover underclass concerns, reportage to clarify versus to convince and technology's impact on news.

01:44 The nature of FT Alphaville relative to mainstream financial media
08:55 The importance of skepticism and critique in Alphaville's coverage of markets
13:26 According to Gallup, Americans have very little to no confidence in newspapers
22:42 Media reticence to cover 'unsophisticated', 'conspiratorial' working class concerns
33:41 Drawing attention to and clarifying versus reporting to confirm, conclude and/or convince
43:42 Technology's impact on journalism - past, present and prospective.

PART 02: Work furlough as proto Universal Basic Income, a labor force under Modern Monetary Theory, naïve accedence of Environmental-Social Governance, socialism, communism and corporate-capitalism.

46:37 Political determination of economic outcomes via furlough, UBI and socialism
57:36 Good intentions of MMT and ESG act as shields against skepticism; the echoes of communism
1:07:52 Political considerations (MMT, UBI, ESG) will result in inescapable market consequences
1:13:14 Corporate measurement of customer behavior and its political consequences

PART 03: Bitcoin free-market green energy, non-fungible tokens, cryptocurrency's role in the monetary order, intraday interbank liquidity, central bank command-economy green agendas and more!

1:20:49 The astounding impact of intraday real time gross settlement on systemic, global liquidity
1:30:43 Green mandates are command-economy solutions; Bitcoin may be the free-market alternative
1:34:06 Balancing transparency against privacy with non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies

---------SEE IT-----------
Alhambra YouTube: https://bit.ly/2Xp3roy
Emil YouTube: https://bit.ly/310yisL

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--------REFERENCES--------
Izabella Kaminska: https://www.ft.com/izabella-kaminska
Alphaville: https://www.ft.com/alphaville
Alhambra Investments Blog: https://bit.ly/2VIC2wW
RealClear Markets Essays: https://bit.ly/38tL5a7

---------WHO-----------
Jeff Snider, Head of Global Investment Research for Alhambra Investments with Izabella Kaminska, editor of FT Alphaville and Emil Kalinowski, a Financial Times subscriber. Art by David Parkins, the Pasqua Rosée of black ink.

Podcast intro/outro is a chamber music version of "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel, the 17th-century German composer. Listen at Epidemic Sound. Learn more about "The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse" from Dr. Matthew Green.