Joseph Cotterill
@jsphctrl.ft.com
Emerging Markets correspondent at the Financial Times.
Brought down by Barclays ‘public policy thought leadership content’. What a way to go on.ft.com/3LslGp4
November 12, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Brought down by Barclays ‘public policy thought leadership content’. What a way to go on.ft.com/3LslGp4
Lots of focus on what this will all mean for the credit of the data centre builders. Just as interesting, what it means for the credit of utilities who will sell the power (but on what terms?). From a recent Jefferies note (‘Guardrails before gigawatts’):
November 11, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Lots of focus on what this will all mean for the credit of the data centre builders. Just as interesting, what it means for the credit of utilities who will sell the power (but on what terms?). From a recent Jefferies note (‘Guardrails before gigawatts’):
Ghost of Yōtei photo mode: like Tsushima, it’s good
November 9, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Ghost of Yōtei photo mode: like Tsushima, it’s good
On the one hand this *is* a lot like Hungary or Turkey. On the other, it's also a lot like what it was like to cover South Africa in the throes of state capture around 2016, where many were very reluctant to call out Zuma on the record. Until suddenly they weren't. www.ft.com/content/1377...
October 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
On the one hand this *is* a lot like Hungary or Turkey. On the other, it's also a lot like what it was like to cover South Africa in the throes of state capture around 2016, where many were very reluctant to call out Zuma on the record. Until suddenly they weren't. www.ft.com/content/1377...
Another interesting part of this bill being proposed by Conservative MPs is that it would have subjected my marriage and others to central planning via a cap on spousal visas.
The love quota.
(The second reading for this ghastly bill is, appropriately, notionally set for Halloween.)
The love quota.
(The second reading for this ghastly bill is, appropriately, notionally set for Halloween.)
October 22, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Another interesting part of this bill being proposed by Conservative MPs is that it would have subjected my marriage and others to central planning via a cap on spousal visas.
The love quota.
(The second reading for this ghastly bill is, appropriately, notionally set for Halloween.)
The love quota.
(The second reading for this ghastly bill is, appropriately, notionally set for Halloween.)
1) Also, the ‘health’ surcharge isn’t. It’s not hypothecated revenue
2) It’s upfront not PAYE (outsiders often surprised by that)
3) You can’t ‘go private’ instead of paying it
4) This is part of why moving ILR qualification from 5 to 10 years is also a money spinner on.ft.com/4oyDMnB
2) It’s upfront not PAYE (outsiders often surprised by that)
3) You can’t ‘go private’ instead of paying it
4) This is part of why moving ILR qualification from 5 to 10 years is also a money spinner on.ft.com/4oyDMnB
October 21, 2025 at 8:43 AM
1) Also, the ‘health’ surcharge isn’t. It’s not hypothecated revenue
2) It’s upfront not PAYE (outsiders often surprised by that)
3) You can’t ‘go private’ instead of paying it
4) This is part of why moving ILR qualification from 5 to 10 years is also a money spinner on.ft.com/4oyDMnB
2) It’s upfront not PAYE (outsiders often surprised by that)
3) You can’t ‘go private’ instead of paying it
4) This is part of why moving ILR qualification from 5 to 10 years is also a money spinner on.ft.com/4oyDMnB
“Hello, is that good money? Yeah there’s been a bit of a situation with bad again.” www.ft.com/content/a241...
October 15, 2025 at 8:45 PM
“Hello, is that good money? Yeah there’s been a bit of a situation with bad again.” www.ft.com/content/a241...
Gold prices: also a factor in Ethiopia's debt restructuring. In return for a haircut, bondholders want a warrant that would be linked to export growth. Talks on that have just stalled but there is clearly one export in particular that stands out. And it's not coffee.
October 14, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Gold prices: also a factor in Ethiopia's debt restructuring. In return for a haircut, bondholders want a warrant that would be linked to export growth. Talks on that have just stalled but there is clearly one export in particular that stands out. And it's not coffee.
Imagine the idea of a leader who is so checked out of his own trade policies that in the ensuing infighting the pugnacious commerce ministry is pitted against the more cautious finance ministry. www.ft.com/content/fbc5...
October 14, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Imagine the idea of a leader who is so checked out of his own trade policies that in the ensuing infighting the pugnacious commerce ministry is pitted against the more cautious finance ministry. www.ft.com/content/fbc5...
Brb looking for some steampunk rocket boosters.
October 8, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Brb looking for some steampunk rocket boosters.
Angola did another sovereign debt repo. This time transferring dollar bonds to a Chinese bank for renminbi, which is a twist on the formula. (From a prospectus for a bond sale today)
October 7, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Angola did another sovereign debt repo. This time transferring dollar bonds to a Chinese bank for renminbi, which is a twist on the formula. (From a prospectus for a bond sale today)
Elizabeth Warren has some questions for Scott Bessent on the US bailout in the works for Argentina. www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
September 23, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Elizabeth Warren has some questions for Scott Bessent on the US bailout in the works for Argentina. www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
I’ve been busy inscribing your skeets in werewolf blood in eldritch tomes in the
September 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I’ve been busy inscribing your skeets in werewolf blood in eldritch tomes in the
Day moons of Rome this past weekend.
September 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Day moons of Rome this past weekend.
The most eyebrow-raising part of this is that Tether's push into commodity financing has apparently grown quite large very quickly. This is not a market for amateurs. (And the gold stuff appears to be mine royalty finance) www.ft.com/content/135f...
September 5, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The most eyebrow-raising part of this is that Tether's push into commodity financing has apparently grown quite large very quickly. This is not a market for amateurs. (And the gold stuff appears to be mine royalty finance) www.ft.com/content/135f...
China and India cannot unseat the dollar. But they might undercut the french fry. According to Rabobank's WORLD POTATO MAP (out today), they have 40% of world production and have gone from net importers to exporters in the last five years. And the exports are relatively cheap.
September 3, 2025 at 4:36 PM
China and India cannot unseat the dollar. But they might undercut the french fry. According to Rabobank's WORLD POTATO MAP (out today), they have 40% of world production and have gone from net importers to exporters in the last five years. And the exports are relatively cheap.
Britain on the brink of civil war and/or an IMF bailout latest (Lloyds Business Barometer for August, out today www.lloydsbank.com/assets/asset...)
August 29, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Britain on the brink of civil war and/or an IMF bailout latest (Lloyds Business Barometer for August, out today www.lloydsbank.com/assets/asset...)
Tim Ash (who I don't think is of this parish) on confusion about the Turkish central bank's *complex* inflation targets/forecasts.
Moral of the story is, central bank independence: it's missed when it's gone, and takes a long time to get credibility back. timothyash.substack.com/p/turkiye-cb...
Moral of the story is, central bank independence: it's missed when it's gone, and takes a long time to get credibility back. timothyash.substack.com/p/turkiye-cb...
August 14, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Tim Ash (who I don't think is of this parish) on confusion about the Turkish central bank's *complex* inflation targets/forecasts.
Moral of the story is, central bank independence: it's missed when it's gone, and takes a long time to get credibility back. timothyash.substack.com/p/turkiye-cb...
Moral of the story is, central bank independence: it's missed when it's gone, and takes a long time to get credibility back. timothyash.substack.com/p/turkiye-cb...
Aristotle famously ends the Nicomachean Ethics with a teaser for the Politics by way of talking about legislators training people for virtue. It’s an awkward segue. But you can see a foreshadowing of the Politics much earlier, in his account of friendship. Like this passage.
August 7, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Aristotle famously ends the Nicomachean Ethics with a teaser for the Politics by way of talking about legislators training people for virtue. It’s an awkward segue. But you can see a foreshadowing of the Politics much earlier, in his account of friendship. Like this passage.
Aristotle knows it’s hard to make friends in your 30s.
August 6, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Aristotle knows it’s hard to make friends in your 30s.
Unfortunately, the translation of akrasia into a particular English term can lead to amusement that is in itself akrasia and not to be condoned
August 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Unfortunately, the translation of akrasia into a particular English term can lead to amusement that is in itself akrasia and not to be condoned
While legendarily difficult as a millennia-old collection of lecture notes, this is actually not so!!! It becomes strangely emphatic and interesting if you just read it in Werner Herzog’s voice instead. Try this passage and see for yourself
August 6, 2025 at 6:56 PM
While legendarily difficult as a millennia-old collection of lecture notes, this is actually not so!!! It becomes strangely emphatic and interesting if you just read it in Werner Herzog’s voice instead. Try this passage and see for yourself
You'd think a Chinese factory making Winnie the Pooh toys might already be living rather dangerously... but apparently the overwhelming problem is overcapacity (or ‘involution’). Big read on China's local government frenzy for investment/avoiding factory closures: www.ft.com/content/f797...
July 29, 2025 at 11:32 AM
You'd think a Chinese factory making Winnie the Pooh toys might already be living rather dangerously... but apparently the overwhelming problem is overcapacity (or ‘involution’). Big read on China's local government frenzy for investment/avoiding factory closures: www.ft.com/content/f797...
“Tariffs were the great theological question of nineteenth century politics.” Sure I’ve shared this quote before, but to the extent that the post facto justification for US tariffs now seems to be their value as a tax revenue source, it is all going a bit nineteenth century.
July 28, 2025 at 11:17 AM
“Tariffs were the great theological question of nineteenth century politics.” Sure I’ve shared this quote before, but to the extent that the post facto justification for US tariffs now seems to be their value as a tax revenue source, it is all going a bit nineteenth century.