In a break from talking about markets, or Covid, we thought it worth highlighting this discussion on Modern Monetary Theory, otherwise known as MMT and linking to this article at the Mises Institute, where the author points out (rather pithily we thought) that Modern Monetary Theory is neither Modern, nor Monetary, nor a Theory.

The US markets last week sold off into the close as they began to worry about the long awaited (and dreaded) second wave of the virus, coming straight back to the long term support line at around 3000 on the S&P500.

The revelation this week not only that Wirecard has filed for insolvency and CEO Marcus Braun been arrested, but that the ex derivative traders now running the SoftBank Vision fund had constructed something akin to a pump and dump scheme for a convertible bond scheme are building into a saga that needs the skills of someone like Michael Lewis to write a whole book about it.

The quote attributed Winston Churchill about never letting a good crisis go to waste came as he and others were looking to set up the UN after the Second World War and was popularised more recently by Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

Traders are trying to see if the dollar will break to the downside. On balance it still looks like it might, but no clear trend yet.