Perceptions and Realities – the Gaps Show in 2014
A few themes seem to have swum into focus during 2014; let’s first consider the idea that there is a developing gap between the...
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geoffreysambrook
Dec 24, 2014
#firstworldproblems
Today is Christmas Eve, the day above all when God and mammon truly compete for our attention; last minute Christmas shopping – and today...
geoffreysambrook
Dec 17, 2014
Chilly Winds at Christmas
There’s a chill wind swirling around this Christmastime. Anybody who was thinking that the chaos wrought by the 2007/08 crisis might have...
geoffreysambrook
Dec 10, 2014
Initiatives, Plans and Projects – the LME Moves Forward
It almost seems that you can’t turn round at the moment without coming up against a new LME initiative. RMB-denominated mini contracts,...
geoffreysambrook
Dec 3, 2014
Platinum and Palladium in the Cross-Hairs
It’s generally accepted that the USA has more lawyers per head of population than any other country, although some authorities give that...
geoffreysambrook
Nov 26, 2014
Boom and Busts
“All political lives…end in failure”, wrote controversial British politician Enoch Powell in his biography of Joseph Chamberlain. You...
geoffreysambrook
Nov 19, 2014
The Rise of the RMB; Are We Prepared?
For those who have been around for a while, the day when the pricing of London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts switched from UK sterling...
geoffreysambrook
Nov 12, 2014
Getting to Grips with the Numbers
It seems as though the media had almost forgotten about the debt and deficit until very recently. They have been waxing lyrical of course...
geoffreysambrook
Nov 5, 2014
How Glasenberg did the Right Thing in Zambia
It was possibly one of Glencore’s better deals – to buy the Mufulira and Nkana operations of ZCCM from the Zambian Government at...
geoffreysambrook
Oct 29, 2014
Manipulations, Corners and Crashes
This morning, I read the obituary of Nelson Bunker Hunt. (London papers are clearly a little behind the times, since he actually died a...
geoffreysambrook
Oct 22, 2014
Staring into the Abyss
This being LME Dinner Week, I have been quite occupied. Richard Horswill has kindly stepped in to write this article (the first half of a...
geoffreysambrook
Oct 15, 2014
Marketing – Who Needs It?
I hear a whisper from a substantial mining house to the effect that they are considering whether or not it would make sense for them to...
geoffreysambrook
Oct 8, 2014
And Now the Criminal Indictments….
A New Jersey-based trader was indicted last Thursday in Chicago on charges of manipulating commodities markets. It is alleged that...
geoffreysambrook
Oct 1, 2014
The Times, They are a-Changin'
If you look at the world today, lots of it looks pretty chaotic. Violent insurgency is changing the face of the Middle East, making a...
geoffreysambrook
Sep 24, 2014
Where Have all the Buyers Gone?
It doesn’t all seem to have gone as planned, this summer. Anybody else remember the euphoria about rampant nickel prices a few months...
geoffreysambrook
Sep 17, 2014
Activity During the Dog Days
The ‘Dog Days’ of summer are traditionally the period of sultry weather experienced in Europe in July and August. Originally a Roman...
geoffreysambrook
Sep 10, 2014
Miss-selling: a Problem of Product or Process?
I guess it would be nigh-on impossible now to find anybody who would speak in favour of the quaint concept of lending money to people who...
geoffreysambrook
Sep 3, 2014
Blue Plaques and Chaim Herzog
Back in the nineteenth century, London pioneered a practice of putting blue plaques on the walls of buildings where significant people...
geoffreysambrook
Aug 20, 2014
"Like the Fix, but with an Algorithm as Chairman"
“It’s similar to the Fix, but with an algorithm in place of the Chairman.” “It’s another sign of the dehumanisation of financial...
geoffreysambrook
Aug 13, 2014
Seeing Through Other Eyes – 1914, 2014
A few days ago was the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the first World War. For anyone who cocks even half an eye to...
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