Global Fertilizer Shortage Means Spring Planting Season Disaster In The Northern Hemisphere

ECB Hikes Rates For First Time Since 2023 (As Expected); Cuts Growth, Hikes Inflation Outlook As fully expected, The ECB hiked its key rate by 25bps (for the first time since 2023) as the policymakers battle with the dilemma of economic weakness combined with rising inflation. Obviously, raising rates to dampen inflation could further slow the economy, while easing rates to support growth increases the risk that higher inflation becomes persistent. Clearly, Lagarde et al went with the former with its well-jawboned baseline having long been a hike in June with risks skewed toward...

Mamdani Is Destroying The Tax Base His Stupid Ideas Desperately Need Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance  When the Fischer-Price My First Mayor™ of New York Zohran Mamdani chose to film a “tax the rich” video in front of a Manhattan penthouse owned by Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, he wasn’t just celebrating “tax day”, he was making a policy argument. Mamdani was making a choice about his tone (dickish), about targets (“people with more money than me are bad”), and about how the city signals to the very people it depends on to fund its...

Japan Marks Hiroshima Anniversary Without Naming US, While Shaming Russia Russia is not happy with Japan's statements regarding the anniversary of the US military's dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of WWII. Thursday marks the 81st anniversary of the bombing which obliterated the densely-populated industrial city. The Kremlin is accusing Japanese officials of intentionally dropping any mention of just who dropped the nuke which ultimately killed some 140,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians. The city's mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony held at the center of where the...