#ecb

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lutnick-heckled-davos-dinner-hosted-by-blackrocks-fink-ft-reports-2026-01-21/

So, this is something I haven't seen discussed on Tumblr.com, and as the self-appointed Economy Side of Tumblr, I cannot let this stand. Or sit. Let's not even talk about letting it lie there in a slutty, slutty pose.

I'm usually in favour of slutty, slutty poses, as is proper of a Frenchman, but not in this case.

So, for those that do not feel the need to click on links to articles, let me summarize :

The World Economic Forum was held recently at Davos. It's kind of a big thing for the world economy. Like, a really big thing. It's also a mostly understated event for geopolitics, it's not out there and confrontational. Most of the time we hear about it because remarkably ineffectual anticapitalist groups with outlandish demands organise demonstration and their demands are so outlandish they're the only ones the press talks about. In this particular instance however, we heard about it a LOT, at least in Europe, because it was directly related to the on-going-but-only-kind-of-but-also-still-a-thing crisis about Greenland.

During this WEF, the CEO of Blackrock, who is also the co-chair of the WEF, organized a dinner for people with a big weight in the world economy. This kind of event tends to be fairly understated, quiet, but important, the kind of backroom events where softly-spoken but tremendously important deals are made.

During this diner one Mister Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce of the USA, decided to make a speech where he bashed the EU and Europe in general. I will take this occasion to remind you that Davos is in Switzerland. In Europe. Not in the EU, but still very much interlinked economically with it. Mayhaps not the best choice of venue for this kind of talk.

As if to exemplify how poor Mister Lutnick's grasp of "there is a time and place" is, he got his ass heckled. Now, this may not seem important but, I assure you : IT FUCKING IS. These events are formal, dignified, there's a decorum, an etiquette. soft-spoken is the rule. And despite this socio-cultural context, Lutnick got his ass BOO'D. I cannot emphasize enough how out of the ordinary this is.

Christine Lagarde, president of the fucking EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK, the single most important financial institution in the entire continent of Europe (why the fuck did he think it was a good idea to spew his bile against Europe in a room with HER?) decided to GET UP and WALK OFF. Let me repeat : the woman at the helm of the organization that controls the monetary policy of the entire fucking Euro-zone, who issues loans to EU states, whose organisation if the Single Biggest Deal for European economies ... got up and left. And she was followed by a bunch of people. This is beyond unprecedented. If point 4 was out of the ordinary, this is straight up iconoclastic, it's the equivalent, for that social circle, of flipping the table and calling Lutnick's mother a whore.

Blackrock called off the dinner before they got to the dessert.

Now, why is this important ? Several reasons.

First off, it means that the ECB is not willing to be diplomatic with Trump's bullshit anymore. Considering how important it is for the EU economies, that opens a rather worrying question for the US : next time they issue treasury bonds ... will Europe buy any ? That's a bit of an issue considering how much they rely on us buying their bonds, and it's made worse by the fact private European funds are apparently starting to divest. If I worked in the Fed or any related US administration, I would be getting nervous.

Second, Blackrock calling off the event means they didn't think it was salvageable. Which means that either they needed Lagarde and co present for important negociations over fine wine and cake, or they were humiliated by this to such a degree they'd rather cut their losses and avoid any risk of further humiliation, or both. I must insist on a point : the catering for those events is EXPENSIVE, like, obscenely so, it's a decadent rich people event, so Blackrock giving up on it midway through is, in economy term, a giant fucking deal.

Furthermore, like I pointed out, this was organized by the CEO of Blackrock and co-chair of the entire World Economic Forum. This is, to put it mildly, a sizeable setback for Blackrock. Effectively, Lutnick spewed so much shit they ruined THE flagship event Blackrock organized for this WEF. It's a slap in the face followed by a kick to the balls for Blackrock. And Blackrock isn't a small company, it has power and influence. And they got humiliated because Lutnick spewed so much shit that the most important lady for the European economy said "fuck this shit, I'm out" and walked out in front of several hundred of the most important people for the world economy. I suspect Blackrock is at least rather miffed.

Third, this is symptomatic of a greater loss of patience in Europe, even among the economic sector. It means that the economic sector of Europe is increasingly convinced that any profit they could make buying from and selling to the US is not worth the diplomatic hastle. This ... is a big fucking deal. It's one more sector with a growing Trump-branded rift between the US and Europe. And the economic sector was the one that clung to the US the most, since those transatlantic relations allowed for a load of business. So if the European business world is turning away from the US, and becoming willing to eat the economic pain this would cause ... well, that's rather bad for the US' economic prospect in the medium and long term.

Now, I must underline that the macro-economic situation is not something that changes at blazing speed usually, there's always a degree of inertia, or rejection of change in favour of tried and true methods, alliances and relations ... but holy fuck did a lot change in a single year ! Because yes, it's only been one (1), singular, unique year since Trump took office. When I make predictions, I tend to remain vague, because making long term economic predictions that are anything but vague is incredibly difficult, but with the speed at which Trump pushes things, I'm not even going to try to make predictions. Will NATO be a thing in a year ? Will economic relations between the US and the EU still exist ? Will they improve ? Worsen ? Shatter ? Stabilize ? Who fucking knows !

At this point, we even have people very seriously ask what we do if/when Trump invades Greenland. It's not taken as mere diplomatic theatre, it is being studied in our military HQs. And for those already reaching for the notes to say stuff like "took you long enough" or something to that effect : shut. We're talking about international diplomacy, where there is ALWAYS inertia to some degree. The fact in a single fucking year Trump took the invasion of Greenland from lalaland fantasy conspiracy troll bullshit from Russia to real and credible threat is the diplomatic equivalent of going 120kph in a zone limited at 20. Adjusting your trajectory is goddamn difficult when the lunatic coming at you is doing so at 6 times the speed limit.

Notice how I didn't even talk about Trump's renewed tarriff threats and how they destabilize things even more.

So, yeah, shit's fucked, I'm not sure where we'll be next year, everything's getting unpredictable and Trump is a nutjob.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/11/post-dollar-world/#de-dollarization

There's a reason every decentralized system eventually finds its way onto a platform: platforms solve real-world problems that platform users struggle to solve for themselves.

I've written before about the indie/outsider author Crad Kilodney, who wrote, edited, typeset and published chapbooks of his weird and wonderful fiction, and then sold his books from Toronto street-corners with a sign around his neck reading VERY FAMOUS CANADIAN AUTHOR BUY MY BOOKS (or, if he was feeling spicy, simply: MARGARET ATWOOD):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

Crad was a hell of a writer and a bit of a force of nature, but there are plenty of writers I want to hear from who are never going to publish their own books, much less stand on a street-corner selling them with a MARGARET ATWOOD sign around their necks. Publishers, editors, distributors and booksellers all do important work, allowing writers to get on with their writing, taking all the other parts of the publishing process off their shoulders.

That's the value of platforms. The danger of platforms is when they grow so powerful that they usurp the relationship between the parties they are supposed to be facilitating, locking them in and then extracting value from them (someone should coin a word to describe this process!):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/07/usurpers-helpmeets/#disreintermediation

Everyone needs platforms: writers, social media users, people looking for a romantic partner. What's more, the world needs platforms. Say you want to connect all 200+ countries on Earth with high-speed fiber lines; you can run a cable from each country to every other country (about 21,000 cables, many of them expensively draped across the ocean floor), or you can pick one country (preferably one with both Atlantic and Pacific coasts) and run all your cables there, and then interconnect them.

That's America, the world's global fiber hub. The problem is, America isn't just a platform for fiber interconnections – it's a Great Power that uses its position at the center of the world's fiber networks to surveil and disrupt the world's communications networks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

That's a classic enshittification move on a geopolitical scale. It's not the only one America's made, either.

Big Structure

Kassandra isn't a good person, and I like that.

I wanted to make a game about someone who starts bad and likely gets worse. Someone who is greedy and unpleasant and is always lying and is too clever for their own good.

Your moves to navigate people and places and cold cases are about violence, about doing cons, and fucking people and leaving them behind, about begging for help when things get bad, or just getting drunk about it.

I wanted to make a love letter to the awful people in stories I have loved. To John Constantine, to Rust Cohle, to Sherlock Holmes.

I wanted to make a game where you don't make a character, you inhabit one, and you play to see what happens to them. You will always play Kassandra King, you will always be solving mysteries for the External Containment Bureau, and at the end of the story you will always meet the Devil.

What move you make when you get there is up to you.

Kassandra King: Devil's Dice is out now on itch and DrivethruRPG.

It'll be on sale for the first week of release.

Does anyone know if there’s a petition against the Digital Euro that is binding for the European Union to talk about it/stop it?

EUR/USD climbs above 1.1800 📈

▪️ Euro gains momentum ahead of German inflation data ▪️ Traders position for potential CPI-driven volatility ▪️ Focus on price pressures for ECB rate outlook

Major currency pairs are consolidating ahead of a heavy macro calendar dominated by the delayed U.S. labor market report for November. EUR/USD is holding near 1.1730, while GBP/USD remains under pressure ahead of UK employment data and the Bank of England’s policy meeting.

The Japanese yen continues to strengthen as markets assess the likelihood of a BoJ rate hike later this month. In contrast, gold is extending its bullish momentum, testing the 4,340 level amid global monetary easing and strong central bank purchases.