Eurodollar University’s Making Sense; Episode 39; Part 1: A Monetary Fifth Dimension; Or, “regulatory arbitrage in the presence of non-harmonised re-hypothecation regimes”

———WHERE———

———WHO———

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffSnider_AIP
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilKalinowski
Art: https://davidparkins.com/

Jeff Snider, Head of Global Investment Research for Alhambra Investments with Emil Kalinowski, quantum mechanic. Artwork by David Parkins. Podcast intro/outro is “Otherworld” by Lama House at Epidemic Sound.

———WHY———

39.1 Not Lehman Bros; It was Lehman Bro Intl. (Europe)!
To understand the 2008 crisis one must understand Lehman Brothers. But NOT Lehman Brothers, Inc. – the American subsidiary. No, the REAL STORY was Lehman Brothers International (Europe), the United Kingdom subsidiary.

———-SPONSOR———-
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[Emil’s Summary] Your podcaster has long been impressed by cinema that presents what is outside the human sensory process; art that conceives and presents what we literally cannot perceive. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrik shows us what transcendence is, by sending Keir Dullea through an astral rainbowfall. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar presents Matthew McConaughey in a tesseract, the three-dimensional shadow of four-dimensional space. In Annihilation, Alex Garland samples evolution, by introducing a sentient, prismatic cancer that refracts and reflects the DNA of its surroundings, including that of Natalie Portman.

The audience is placed in an environment that doesn’t reconcile with daily life and leaves them holding on to reality – at least as they understand it – by their fingernails. The eurodollar system is like that. Consider this legal wordfall from the Financial Stability Board: “regulatory arbitrage in the presence of non-harmonised re-hypothecation regimes.”

Or this two-dimensional shadow of extra-dimensional money by Jeff Snider: “Nobody buys securities; they borrow and claim to ‘own’ [them]… [then] the client will agree to allow the dealer to re-pledge… the very security the client is claiming to own… [T]he already re-pledged security… can be re-pledged again… In many if not most cases, there needn’t be the original client [desire] for this chain of re-pledging.”

If you want to know what it’s like to travel through a wormhole for 18 hours in a hundredth of a second like Jodie Foster did in Robert Zemeckis’ Contact then part one of Episode 39 is for you. Parts two and three aren’t the worst things in the world either. Well, this world at least…

———WHEN———

00:05 “Regulatory arbitrage in the presence of non-harmonised re-hypothecation regimes.” Wut?!?!
01:45 To understand the phrase one must know what took place in 2008 – what really took place.
03:26 What was Lehman Brothers International (Europe)? How was it different from Lehman Bros?
07:17 Offshore jurisdictions offer more forgiving regulations to banks – like the City of London
08:46 The difficult to believe quantum mechanics world of eurodollar collateral.
14:25 Do regulators say anything about collateral repledging on which the monetary order rests?
18:24 ECB Executive Board member, Isabel Schnabel has identified “a shortage of safe collateral”

———WHAT———

A Nonsensical Jumble of Misused Words Requires Discussion: https://bit.ly/3oPaJ0d
(I. Schnabel Speech) Shifting tides in euro area money markets: https://bit.ly/3oLBz9w
Alhambra Investments Blog: https://bit.ly/2VIC2wW
RealClear Markets Essays: https://bit.ly/38tL5a7

Eurodollar University’s Making Sense; Episode 39; Part 1: A Monetary Fifth Dimension; Or, “regulatory arbitrage in the presence of non-harmonised re-hypothecation regimes”

About the Author: Jeffrey P. Snider

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