Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Holger Binding

Ian Smith @iankmsmith.ft.com · 6m

In the ultra-competitive market for corporate pensions deals, and with credit spreads incredibly tight, big insurers are leveraging up their gilts to eke out higher returns.

Leveraged gilts backing pensions: never goes wrong obviously
www.ft.com/content/427a...

Leverage creeps into gilts market as insurers seek to boost returns

Use of derivatives to enhance bets on UK government bonds raises parallels with strategies that fuelled 2022 meltdown

www.ft.com

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1h

There must be some funky structuring involved because a bank which extends leverage would naturally load up on balance sheet. Maybe there is a play with the liquidity buffer on the other side. Allowing insurers to lever up on government bonds may create inelasticities in a sell off and is bad.

Reposted by Holger Binding

T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 17h

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

Carbon capture – the get-out-of-jail-free card that does not actually work

Engineers have been trying to perfect the technology for years but the maximum effect it could manage is far short of what the planet needs

www.theguardian.com

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 2h

… considerations should be storage cost relative the BESS and the number of hours pa which allow crossing electricity bid and offer prices at a price ratio of 4 or so. The use case would thus be to buy and sell from time to time not to run constantly.

Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 2h

The viability of H2 is a function of electricity price variance. If RE supply is calibrated to a high supply confidence over a battery arbitragable time interval, then there will be periods of oversupply and undersupply which will lead to very low and high prices respectively. So main …

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 12h

A govt with a survival instinct would follow very closely any political development in the U.S. as Trump has turned everyone’s life into hell since he came back to power. So she may not have formed a firm opinion but I would posit that she has been briefed on what to say.

Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 13h

Let’s see. If I were the govt, I’d watch it carefully and make sure everyone is briefed to avoid a Trumpian temper tantrum disaster.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 13h

…critical- may they be blessed- when it comes to swaying elections. They went for Mamdani to the tune of 80%, which by extension puts a lot of inner city Labour seats at risk of going to the Greens.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 13h

My working theory would be that she followed the NY mayoral elections closely and has been briefed on how to respond. For two reasons. A) Hoe to deal with Trumps insanity. A loss in NY may surely open the route for regarding action by the U.K. govt. until reason returns. B) Young women appear to be…

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 15h

Ru is also locking in very high funding cost when issuing debt to finance its deficit. That looks increasingly difficult to sustain.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 16h

It must also surely be cheaper than nuclear in a realistic use case. PV generating and storing heat through sand/or bricks with maybe an MeOH from biomass wing hedge ought to be a better option to heat water than messing about with fission.

Reposted by Holger Binding

FT Edit @ftedit.ft.com · 16h

Global stocks slip as US sell-off over AI valuations spreads on.ft.com/3WBWUVR #FTEdit

Global stocks slip as US sell-off over AI valuations spreads

Steep decline in Asian markets led by companies most exposed to demand for artificial intelligence

on.ft.com

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 18h

Some of it will come from squeezing out govt bond issuance. Expect ample talk about ending QT, maybe QE even and CB repo facilities. We will be printing money to keep that fallacy going. When it eventually tanks, there will be govt bailouts and one hell of a hangover.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 19h

There will be soon socialist soirées on Wall Street with people bragging about their AI-rendered spiritual connection to Rosa Luxemburg.

Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 22h

This could also be a very cheap Dunkelflaute hedge. Rather than building bespoke -and mostly idle- infrastructure, one could subsidise the addition of steam turbines to heat storage systems. It could be cheaper than LNG even during BAU use.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 23h

The victory came from outside the donor-lobbyist-captured press-manipulative social media-skewed politician ecosystem which is so depressingly prevalent in many countries and has brought us MAGA-Labour. Maybe there is hope.

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Reposted by Holger Binding

The Economist @economist.com · 1d

Changes in technology, economics and human ingenuity are “bending towards a future where affordable, clean energy for all can finally be a reality”, writes Christiana Figueres. But, she argues, innovation still has to outpace climate impacts

The climate action that matters is in the global south, argues an architect of the Paris agreement

But, writes Christiana Figueres, innovation still has to outpace climate impacts

econ.st

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

The internal combustion engine for short to medium range transport is dead. Even if we had to rely on fossil fuels, it would be silly to burn them when it’s windy or the sun shines, because the variable cost of fuels are close to zero with installed RE. It’s corrupt to suggest otherwise.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

We are in the midst of the most daring empirical experiment in human history: how much crazy can you pump into the world’s largest economy before it breaks?

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

… with an attached steam turbine, cover electricity shortfall when it’s dark and still.

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

To which degree can industrial electrification help to stabilise the electricity market by firstly soaking up surplus RE and secondly being able to scale down demand or even add supply during Dunkelflaute? Sand batteries, for example, can put a floor on prices during sunny & windy Sundays and, …

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Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

The question is what will make the people inhabiting the territory currently subsumed under the Russian Federation want to stay home and finally install some plumbing?

Holger Binding @hermgamma.bsky.social · 1d

It could potentially be worrying if these outfits issue debt ‘backed’ largely by crapto which then finds its way into money market funds or is used as ‘stablecoin’ collateral. Disguised gunk is worse than outright gunk as it may deteriorate confidence in the financial system.

Reposted by Holger Binding

Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 2d

The Roosevelt Institute was honored to present @teenvogue.com with the 2025 Freedom of Speech Medal because their team understood that freedom is about both speaking truth to power and the capacity to build power.

Read our full statement:
rooseveltinstitute.org/press-releas...

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Forget petty bribes, ‘state capture’ is corruption so deep it is shaping the rules of democracy itself | Kenneth Mohammed

Beating the dangerous influence of private interests on governments requires independent judges, journalists and a courageous civil society

www.theguardian.com

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