16th September 2021 > > Morgan Stanley vs Uzbekinstan.

tl;dr

You get to decide who is right.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

UST 10-year yields are completely ignoring all the reports of inflation (goods and wages) from around the world. This reinforces my conviction that bond prices - the traditional harbingers of the economy’s health and forward-looking indicators of a potential recession - are now no more than a measure of the market’s belief in the central bank’s disconnect from reality.

The ECB under the aegis of Convicted Criminal Christine Lagarde may have started tapering (“The lady is not for tapering” springs to mind) but that will not last long given the policy makers of the US cannot countenance addressing their own addiction to quantitative easing.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Morgan Stanley (MS) crypto research

After launching funds earlier this year to allow wealthy clients gain exposure to cryptos, Morgan Stanley has set up a new crypto dedicated research team. A spokesman had this to say:

“... (the new team research team) is in recognition of the growing significance of crypto currencies and other digital assets in global markets.”

With a stake in MicroStrategy, dozens of its own funds owning Grayscale BTC and other Grayscale crypto funds, and a co-lead for Series B financing of a Coinbase related tokenisation platform MS are leading the investment bank charge into the world of cryptos.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Uzbekistan

In 2019, the Uzbekistan government banned residents from making payments in cryptocurrencies:

“Crypto assets cannot be used as a method of sending or receiving payments on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan”

Behzon Khamraev, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan has doubled down by saying the government will never reconsider this decision. As an aside I do wonder if this ban is enforced against the country’s elite, but is that just my natural scepticism on display?

Who is right – Morgan Stanley or Uzbekistan?