Interview: Izabella Kaminska

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

---------HEAR IT----------
Vurbl: https://bit.ly/3rq4dPn
Apple: https://apple.co/3czMcWN
Deezer: https://bit.ly/3ndoVPE
iHeart: https://ihr.fm/31jq7cI
TuneIn: http://tun.in/pjT2Z
Castro: https://bit.ly/30DMYza
Google: https://bit.ly/3e2Z48M
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3arP8mY
Pandora: https://pdora.co/2GQL3Qg
Breaker: https://bit.ly/2CpHAFO
Castbox: https://bit.ly/3fJR5xQ
Podbean: https://bit.ly/2QpaDgh
Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2C1M1GB
PlayerFM: https://bit.ly/3piLtjV
Podchaser: https://bit.ly/3oFCrwN
PocketCast: https://pca.st/encarkdt
SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/3l0yFfK
ListenNotes: https://bit.ly/38xY7pb
AmazonMusic: https://amzn.to/2UpEk2P
PodcastAddict: https://bit.ly/2V39Xjr

--------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.