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Phead128

Captain
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
This confirms my long held suspicion that Biden has no real control over the situation. Everyone says what everyone wants to say. There is no coherent plan.
Talk tough about sanctioning China if they 'help' Ukrainian war (what does that even mean?)

then secretly lift tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products.

So we can see a pattern.... TALK BIGLY, then concede silently. The public didn't even notice, they only hear the toughness part.
 

4Runner

Junior Member
Registered Member
Talk tough about sanctioning China if they 'help' Ukrainian war (what does that even mean?)

then secretly lift tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products.

So we can see a pattern.... TALK BIGLY, then concede silently. The public didn't even notice, they only hear the toughness part.
I could actually give it up to Biden on that particular point, which provides real relief to American enterprises and consumers while placating XI's complains, without losing PR face. The right cannot openly attack on that action. The left cannot descent on that. A perfect cover for what actually benefits Americans without losing face.
 

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Talk tough about sanctioning China if they 'help' Ukrainian war (what does that even mean?)

then secretly lift tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products.

So we can see a pattern.... TALK BIGLY, then concede silently. The public didn't even notice, they only hear the toughness part.

The smartest thing they've done is censor Trump on Twitter. Had it not have happened everyone would know about it, even liberals because liberal media love reporting on Trump tweets.
 

coolgod

Major
Registered Member
I'll try to explain with my cursory understanding of finance. So the guy tried shorting the nickel stock, which is like a bet that the price will go down. However, the nickel price suddenly shot up, making him lost that bet and now he has to buy the stock at the price to give back the stocks he used to short.

He doesn't have enough money to cover those short, and the bank that is backing up his margin call is apparently a big one, JPM. Now JPM has the job to bail the guy out of that position, but since both parties can't pay, so through some insider influence, they asked them to shutdown the London stock exchange for Nickel and reverse their trading position.

The thing is though, reversing that amount of volume just for that guy, broke the trust in the system. So now we're seeing an exodus of traders from LME to other metal exchange market and the price of the nickel stock gone tumbling down.

Someone please help me check if I what I said is accurate.
That is a bunch of BS you read from western media, you are just regurgitating cope propaganda about how the west lost a bunch of money and how China supposedly "cheated" in the London metals exchange.

First,
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is one the world's nickel producer, the short position is just their hedge. All commodities producers buy shorts as a hedge, that's the raison d'etre of commodities shorts, to protect the producers in case the market goes south.

Second, everything was normal until Russian-Ukraine conflict, the west decides it wants to stop the import of russian commodities, oil, gas, metals, etc. Glencore, intune with western policies decides to short squeeze Tsingshan since it knows blocking the export of russian nickels would cause the price to go sky high.

Third, Glencore and other western traders bet that Tsingshan currently doesn't have enough inventory of nickel to cover their existing contracts. Prices exploded, then Tsingshan made a statement they had enough nickel to fulfill their short contracts 200000 tons (which are still above their profit price point). LME decided to shutdown the market and reverse some of the trades? Why? Cause Glencore and the other traders would get wiped out and can't pay. They would have to fulfill their buy obligations for 200000 Tons of Nickel delivered unless they could find another buyer. Who in the world (besides China of course) could possibly take delivery for that much Nickel at an absurdly high price?

Fourth, so where did the western traders' plan go wrong? Normally Tsingshan would have enough inventory to cover their shorts since they are a Nickel producer. If they couldn't cover their bets they could always buy from the spot market, which always have ample supplies due to Russian exports. Glencore thought since LME suddenly banned Russian Nickel, Tsingshan couldn't cover the shorts, so western traders could make a massive profit and the short squeeze happened. When Tsingshan assured the market they had enough inventory to cover their positions, the rumor came out that China had opened its national metals reserve to Tsingshan. The massive bubble was about to pop, so the traders complained to LME to get them to suspend the market, while they figure out how not to get wiped out. In the end they convinced LME to reverse some of their trades, so the trading firms still survive but lose a hefty sum.

If the LME (now owned by HK) didn't suspend the market and reverse some trades, many western commodities traders would get wiped out and Tsingshan would make an even bigger profit. Of course, the western media has to spin its own version of the story to cope with their massive losses. In the end, this was just another failed commodities financial war against China and its domestic firms, which usually doesn't go well for the other side.
 
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Abominable

Major
Registered Member
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Houthis hit Saudi Arabia again, two refineries hit apparently. The Saudis seem to be blaming Iranian cruise missiles this time, again how convenient.

Now the Saudis get to claim they have to reduce oil production, and can ask America to put pressure on Iran. Is the nuclear deal going to be cancelled? Oil prices are going to go up again.

The Gulf Arabs should just sell their western jets and buy J-10s. Then they won't need to play these games when trying to manipulate the oil markets.
 
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