Slow Read
Macro
Money, trade, debt and the machinery of economies.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
Chartbook 469: The Risk of Unwind
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-469-the-risk-of-unwind&source=gmail&ust=1788049320613000&sa=E> Uses New York Fed research to show the Treasury basis trade reached 830 billion US dollars in September 2025, nearly double its Covid-era peak and about 3.5 per cent of privately held Treasuries, while hedge-fund repo and prime-brokerage borrowing rose 154 per cent and 83 per cent respectively since 2022. A chart-driven explanation of a specific, underappreciated vulnerability in Treasury market plumbing.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
The Anti-Amazon
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the-anti-amazon/&source=gmail&ust=1788049320613000&sa=E> Compares Costco’s cost structure with Amazon’s, Costco’s overheads run around 10 per cent of sales against delivery costs eating close to 40 per cent of Amazon’s non-cloud sales, to argue Costco’s simpler logistics model is the more efficient one, then extends the comparison to New York’s proposed public grocery stores.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
From Hide and Bide to Loud and Proud
An excerpt from a forthcoming Oxford University Press study tracing how Xi Jinping personally recentralised Chinese foreign-policy-making, chairing eleven Party coordination bodies against two each for Hu and Jiang, a structural shift from professional foreign-ministry management to direct Party-Central control dating back to the 1990s. Drawn from the authors’ own book, so read it knowing they have a direct stake in its argument.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
Drowning in Debt
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/brazil-debt/&source=gmail&ust=1788049320614000&sa=E> Reframes Brazil’s wage share once interest payments are stripped out, headline wage share rose from 46.2 to 48.1 per cent of GDP, but net of interest it fell from 44.1 to 42.2 per cent, to show how consumer credit expansion has quietly transferred wage gains to creditors. Debt-service-to-income ratios of 25 to 27 per cent, well above the 5 to 15 per cent typical of G7 economies, make this directly relevant to anyone tracking household credit risk in emerging markets.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
Orbital Enclosure
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/orbital-enclosure/&source=gmail&ust=1788049320614000&sa=E> Documents specific FCC and FAA waivers, including SpaceX operating at nine times its authorised power limit, alongside BlackRock and Vanguard’s 7 to 9 per cent equity stakes, to explain the regulatory and financial plumbing behind SpaceX’s roughly 65 per cent share of active low-Earth-orbit satellites and 82 to 84 per cent of global launches.
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★★★★☆ Added 29/08/2026
Trumpian State Capitalism
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/trumpian-state-capitalism/&source=gmail&ust=1788049320614000&sa=E> Tracks the scale of Trump-era equity stakes and Development Finance Corporation lending in critical minerals, 25 billion US dollars since July 2025 and a lending cap tripled to 205 billion US dollars, against a global backdrop of state-owned enterprises now controlling 54 trillion US dollars in assets, up from 13 trillion in 2000. Uses the Syrah Resources graphite case to show tariffs alone do nothing without proven domestic processing capacity.
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How we rate
How the stars work
★★★★★ Original reporting or data, explains a mechanism, argues fairly.
★★★★ Excellent, one soft spot: a frame, narrow scope, or an interview.
★★★ Solid, if the subject already interests you.
Rated on the piece, never its politics. A frame tag, in italics, names the position a piece argues from so you can weigh it before you read.