No meandering preamble this week, just a note to highlight that in addition to triple-A rated analysis, snark and shitposting, FT Alphaville also runs a weekly charts quiz on Fridays.
Sometimes these are stupidly difficult and no one even comes close to guessing what the labelless squiggly lines show, and other times they are apparently super-easy and our inbox overfloweth with correct entries.
But most weeks one reader walks away with bragging rights, a CV-enhancing prize and one of these I❤️Charts T-shirts designed by Jean-Louis Æshwuérth, our in-house creative.
Just look at how proud they are! If you fancy yourself a chart wizard, then here is this week’s contest. There are still a few hours left to get your name in the virtual hat.
Anyway, here is FTAV’s output over the past week:
📈 The US housing ‘lock-in effect’ –quantified. And can US mortgages be made portable or assumable?
📈 American endowments’ complicated love affair with private equity. And venture capital and hedge funds, naturally
📈Jane Street gets into mobile gaming. Could Figgie be Pit the younger?
📈What’s with ’Spoons boss Tim Martin and breakdancing? Landlord of the dance
📈The great pandemic vaccine bubble, charted. Saving humanity’s a costly business
📈Are the Bank of England’s external rate-setters pointless? Are the Bank of England’s external rate-setters pointless?
📈Alright sickos, here’s even more charts about the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee. Do it for the dove
📈The bond market liquidity ‘trilemma’. Once more unto the breach
📈Britain’s biggest retailer isn’t British and isn’t a retailer. Last Action hero
📈 Why New York law doesn’t actually matter. ‘Brickell Bay North’ is shooting itself in the foot
📈The increasingly blurred lines between banks and NBFIs. Striking a chord (diagram)