Magyar on Hungarian state media this morning is an absolute treat

He called for a two-term limit in his acceptance speech tonight.

Fantastic day.

Went to my first midnight omelette party last night. Thanks for the inspo, @jemima.bsky.social!

My interview with the @suomenpankki.fi 's Olli Rehn has just been published. I asked him to elaborate on his views on how demographics will impact monetary policy, alongside geopolitics, green policies, NBFI and stablecoins.

Read here:
www.centralbanking.com/central-bank...

Banque de France made €11bn by ‘bringing gold up to standard’ - Central Banking Exchanging lower-quality NY bullion for higher-spec European bars led to ‘exceptional’ capital gain

Banque de France's €11bn gold windfall discussed here, with myself quoted on what's behind it - shorturl.at/jhUFo by @lkoro.es @ucc.ie

Hard to say. Telex report from March 2 says that the ministry has no idea either: "The start of passenger traffic is not tied to a specific date, but to the uncompromising operation of the ETCS system. This is expected to happen in the spring, even before the Easter holidays at the earliest".

I'm (supposed to be) preparing for this exam and I'm convinced that it should, at best, ask candidates to demonstrate their ability to make a cuppa, engage in 15 minutes of small talk about the weather and display queuing skills. I'm also OK with having to recite the BTP announcement verbatim.

NBU governor calls for EU probe into asset seizure - Central Banking State-owned bank’s staff now released from custody, but assets remain in Hungary

Insane story: Ukrainian savings bank swaps cash and gold with Austrian partner (€35m and 9kg), convoy gets raided by HU counter-terrorism officers and staff are detained in Budapest for 30 hours blindfolded and cuffed. HU authorities deny consular and legal access and speak Russian with them.

Gemini Said They Could Only Be Together if He Killed Himself. Soon, He Was Dead. A new lawsuit alleges Google’s chatbot sent a Florida man on missions to find an android body it could inhabit. When that failed, it set a suicide countdown clock for him.

It just keeps happening

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/gemi...

Every now and again I realise that life in London means spending ~50% of my income on rent in a flatshare, getting ripped off by the most expensive public transport network in Europe and having the police laugh at even trying to recover my stolen bike (from the building I live in).

“Bored of Peace”

Cool ECB paper alert! These researchers used satellite data to monitor NO2 emissions and predict oil demand.

There's insane, and there's whatever this is.

Changing of Lagarde: who might take over at the ECB? - Central Banking De Cos and Knot among contenders, following reports that president may be stepping down early

The game of musical chairs at the @ecb.europa.eu continues. Who may replace Lagarde? My latest for @centralbanking.bsky.social

Suspended Bulgarian deputy appointed as caretaker PM - Central Banking Country’s president says Gurov is only candidate not tainted by association with outgoing government

I had spoken to Andrey Gurov a while back to discuss his suspension. Now, he's caretaker prime minister.

Betting on Jesus returning by 2027 and the Backstreet Boys singing about crypto are kind of the same thing. Speculation and nostalgia are both exit strategies from the present, and neither provides answers.

New piece on what happens when the economy grows without… people.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire . ALT: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

Checking in on Bulgaria...

Reserve managers focus on the ‘E’ in ‘ESG’ - Central Banking Central banks continue buying green assets while largely eschewing governance and social elements

ESG is far from dead - central bank reserve managers are, by and large, happy with their investments and are looking for more. The green asset market has clearly matured enough and produces quantifiable results, so the focus shifted to them. My latest for @centralbanking.bsky.social.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the meaning of "doomscrolling" seems to have changed from "reading apocalyptic news and feeling unable to break away from it" (circa 2020-2021) to just "scrolling for a long time".

(That is, will it run again?) - I'm suspicious as load factor could not have been higher than 40% when I took it and if you're running ten C6 carriages with two locos... That's not cheap.

Positives: You get an extra day, maybe day and a half of skiing, and there's a nice bar carriage.
Negatives: Bad for the environment (two diesel locos), very old rolling stock, not too comfortable (couchette-six only), arrived ahead of schedule.

Would I take it again? Yes. Will it? Probably not.

Travelski Night Express: a review Some melancholic thoughts on the state of European night trains

By the way, to the rail-heads here: I rode and reviewed the Travelski Night Express. voyages.substack.com/p/travelski-...

EU cannot fully disconnect from US, say Kocher and Nagel - Central Banking German and Austrian governors say bloc can take steps to gain more sovereignty

Austrian and German central bank heads say EU fully disconnecting from the US is not a viable proposition www.centralbanking.com/central-bank...

Worth the click for the Martin Lewis-iathan alone

“My period of celibacy ended at a psychedelics conference in San Diego, California.”

Nothing quite like organising the meeting with someone in GMT (Good Meeting TIme) +11 and them no-showing.

Decade Déjà Vu: Are the 2020s the New 1920s? YouTube video by World Economic Forum

This is from the @adamtooze.bsky.social -NYT panel at WEF. Fascinating how @president.ecb.europa.eu comes across as the person with the most reasonable views from it all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi6A...

"If GPUs deteriorate too quickly for AI in data centres, then we can just use them for the cloud" is the current position of high finance.

Pour qui sonne le glas(cier) ? : anthologie du ski d'été en France L'histoire du ski d'été en cinq épisodes

I've stumbled upon a five-post series of summer skiing in France and it's a fascinating read. www.skipass.com/news/antholo...