Obsidian Sync 2025-01-17 14:23:47

content/daily-notes/2025-01-17.md

@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
 ### 2025-01-17
 #### Matt Levine on Eurodollars
-I talked about the Odd Lots 3-part special series on the history of the eurodollar yesterday. Here is Matt Levine adding more color to it
+I talked about the Odd Lots 3-part special series on the history of the eurodollar yesterday. Here is Matt Levine adding more color to it. The whole section is worth quoting in full.
+
+> My rough mental model is that “dollars” are, in essence, entries on the balance sheets of US chartered banks. If you want to transact in dollars, you need to open an account at a US bank, or at a foreign bank that has a correspondent account with a US bank. And so dollar issuance is regulated by the US Federal Reserve, and anyone who transacts anywhere in dollars is, ultimately, subject to US financial regulation. This comes up a lot when I think about sanctions, or Tether, or Tether as a tool for sanctions evasion. I wrote last year, [about Tether](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl0EwcZSaTcIB5c8zik1cqeqQFaotSL-LYr9BjqRR6TglunbkYCiRlwFFsXSR9zlMC-V9bIfhhjCOCX3RiSM2z7VmdBW2y4p2Zl532DxG0ulD6AR7ya6fO8EkF7rbVEusYm_P7bY8kyN0WvBXb6UFM4PFmtayyUOW5H3AeLuZ2FarTVRPK0Vm24LSo91YoeG7w-geIHiQLTzdyPh1qYC4-EeQfF37GelTTIp6O9kPe6r2Yxqc68qNLr9AxmmCFidbWSgf5dgg4yoX58iKSsBc1w04U1AEfrIjwAqO1cMgngXH7HJNy-V390s4i2Fj9wFY6g%3D%3D):
+> 
+> > Dealing in dollars means going through the regulated US financial system, and the regulated US financial system, these days, is rather hostile to certain sorts of commodities dealings. (The ones involving Russia or Venezuela.) If someone came to you with “dollars, but not through the US financial system,” you might find that appealing.
+> 
+> But this mental model is incomplete. Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast has a nice miniseries on the story of the Eurodollar, told by Lev Menand and Josh Younger, that clarified my mental model. Eurodollars _are_ “dollars, but not through the US financial system,” dollar-denominated liabilities of foreign banks that are _not_ necessarily backed by dollar-denominated assets. (Like [Tether](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl9SaPseKhkDSaL2LG9ZqAIs6Yew2nXRhzDSnHS2YUFlHpCuEzqYwtnclb0ILgKls7BkhoW0yg5hYZmniiVM3AUAn6nuhYeaczhjI5hBcLjQuWWsujCISs7D8QNjZGHJyFpT55WT2GD_LAJke6qWJMwEU6EP1dt99lUIrtKID2jy4hmTRF1Zhw2c_5Ls0SpSaURIH3JywJH4KITog5nKk6tZKbwqEpIGfvMsbLIHizEbztD-5cqcc3Vyll0OZy8-0-qWkOqfn4hr5xuGq2RwcDx4QED8lCYxNi0fT4ujICN9m4dAGZSWW1nsaENEouTseOg%3D%3D) [used to be](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl6pwpTRRtBuzpw1FZ4FgPgPWvn9ukvs6kwEPWJG-PYT9T-xpgmXuJrFNruinuZArN-iK1mNtiDczs_IQSGL9twi0OsTKM_Dy6vZouNkeQLTZjcZ-GOqxG8KGV7qSsYT4--Ti-EwIQ6B4bIQ7McNW_bYZOFWzhBZ8GEbkK_SU9In6tRL9ExCF1TlbRlBATtbSyvEmuFFeoUpgu6RDi-VgmGUHARFm49U3s_d3UFi3ClsKmdSx_nxeDa9Lt8tOfeFTziq_oVlXRZTAxGNtUa6Oj98k8xDiYMjIRy4BwIaG15zmBjUoCWyV8PDYvcmahcU8rw%3D%3D)!) Anyway it is a good series and I learned a lot; you can listen to [Part 1](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl94KjA53lSGj0mqykSEgPiuU0IyjfFo7EzAoAjfwSBa0oyhBO1CY1h5btQSJTkecogtlP48-KAO5zgKBWOTSIWRoVugnBXC9vqrpiP8QVqVuWRF3KjnISMDjnFbmnfjLzGQgPnFPleu7KdfcaVJNnzDuZ3Mz5PiuE7XWwE6m139-P4asUXNfxWyifwzTHwYArA8EEFZLuEOIaT5HSVSbLCb18lFdrjfBQ_O7OFzXsg_H7BdvLDWRg_MCxuEl69Qu-1-NrpFBQZpWABkPQ1UG0XVegG4LYFxlnJ5dhYV9zY8iIf4kNW4dVeDLzq-79x9BofK4zjXmd6tuLi3joUU_NB8N90MAHliNAK9xpNcvxqgjbfxTYC_9b3J90hXKdoYhlJXMX2bEuWBxiXflRb3HgVZ_oJjGvpgpIpiLGOHCfv9s3s1JbR3HUDzER6yjJVzIYw71HyixJ_1WD8yG0EPkFSplZq-7jSMLK1YAYU4Qb3MQmAA6Jt1lGD7rIwi-AtIYI4SygNcIivefqxipMOWmAFiJ0Q4E46_nXy4SGw8sUMV1IysveLFgJEDEKcAuuiRvuRyB52CGVv3IKtqaRSm3_JE%3D), [Part 2](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl94KjA53lSGj0mqykSEgPiuU0IyjfFo7EzAoAjfwSBa0oyhBO1CY1h5btQSJTkecogtlP48-KAO5zgKBWOTSIWR2emUCNyqnBa7wVV44ZAjEufITrB4R8EII6wd8quoOD2olgxBQcXMWxJVtWA2X7Dfc7QSlqKVhF_eStKnOhNCBsuQnljgRAbg3rY7Ma3mSq3DOxe3sZFW12A7FYvKM0wS089t9XDwSzg8zJGhAGfiRXXXm9tsTCuhS1Gsqn9k5GC8YoluNc-__zEEHzQ1tD-ZZCLUL7qBVMBBpe26pbLYxVmD-cwC1kDNS-oQHcSgBfPgcuw30MsGF6DswWPtvOPZEzxBnjYpEre_G8uIvQr2kQDXFSLrcz794OL7kr8-WzS8g2NDYvl0iyJ5teiGmwL940bfLDvhK0ptIRFRdabK7kM_APEomtXbTBaumPSnoQgbALOAfL4hv1md160KTa4srcDKRYoSGMxpRcjBQXcTaycfAhUUJTptO_l7Pw9S9y-6coDLjJZhz7tdct4PkPKE%3D) and [Part 3](https://links.message.bloomberg.com/u/click?_t=f574328d4d0c4c359b90d8e49b10e21d&_m=a59851325004416786fa0da223888f14&_e=iXfp1dzcYh8B-Auf2gOhl94KjA53lSGj0mqykSEgPiuU0IyjfFo7EzAoAjfwSBa0oyhBO1CY1h5btQSJTkecogtlP48-KAO5zgKBWOTSIWS1daTJeVhBxFuqet1KV2fZJTw392NfbyZOnGww2YQ6U4Eab7IhP3jgRbJEtA-TB-f2ah-cLS8veZAOfWdt4N9qoMPIsyLK4m9Wp9WSNM51QwXv9IPoQuz9VGXmAN5V4y-PooXYV-nty6cHoldRLrC-oaReyzymPMt7VMfxeigqG9KEOxY3t3yqYhXF4arZMDeFxoXkQP7IOuBEsMJjKFn-bCXuOljuZtKH9mOV8iF6K7qnUJOGXSI8hS56D84YOUWNG2lwb_-XS04BKDW4S81WjL7D7vfnBJLrgOVGGBakzFRIAQNLzrKozNsl-tKvxsMtew8Z73R91dxRVTnXNVoKJB_Zx2hmvvrnjs-XnuFprbjcuk0N8BxE46nsLGL8_YIux8UrHdgV6_1EO1VAROXaymNT6uKIKnvB31DdEsYpAlY9Tj5-cNHabFX5kSh8-7br6XXbygSeiLNAWEwVIOVbK2aa6UZgGMMM1WGfIGh8Wg%3D%3D) at those links.