In fact, of course, the fears of the European Securities Market Supervisory Authority (ESMA) circulated by Bloomberg about the increase in over-the-counter transactions in the gas markets after the introduction of the so-called.
price ceilings for this product are not only not groundless, but for people more or less, as they say, "in the market" are much more alarming than even the American agency believes.
Bloomberg and, in fact, all of America are far away, and much more than the problems of European Indians in the securities markets, they are interested in the bad forebodings of American shale traders.
But for the European markets, the anxiety expressed by ESMA looks really scary.
However, let's go in order.
ESMA fears that if a gas price cap is introduced, transactions could move into the OTC market, which will not affect the price cap.
And this, from the point of view of the European Securities Market Supervisory Authority, can affect not only gas markets, but in general - we quote - "lead to significant and abrupt changes in the broader market environment, which may affect the orderly functioning of markets and ultimately to financial stability.”
Which, translated from the bird language of financiers into a generally accessible human language, means, in general, banal: guys, if everything goes as you plan, it seems to us kirdyk.
What can be said here.
It is unlikely that this is so connected solely with the establishment of a ceiling on gas prices, which is also quite ridiculous, but Western - primarily European, of course - exchange mechanisms are indeed degrading quite seriously.
And so seriously that it can be seen with the naked eye even by people who are far from the comprehensive completeness of information that the respected ESMA has.
Who among us has not heard about the differences between "paper" (traded on stock exchanges) gold and physical gold, the so-called.
monetary, which is traded according to completely different mechanisms and is not an exchange commodity at all.
And finally, the hellish energy crisis in the eurozone, caused in many respects by the introduction of exchange mechanisms in the gas markets of the subcontinent (through the Dutch TTF hub and, for some reason, the London ICE exchange),
Here everything is simple.
While gas was traded according to the “oil price formula”, in Europe, as we remember, peace and goodwill reigned in the markets, only occasionally interrupted by desperate attempts by the Ukrainian side to steal gas transiting through its territory with impunity.
Attempts were suppressed by joint efforts, and peace and, most importantly, stability reigned again.
And although these times seem now to be such an embodied utopia, they really were.
And just yesterday.
But then the "invisible hand of the market" intervened - the European Commission decided to switch to spots, and the pricing mechanisms were kindly transferred to the London team of financial speculators from ICE.
Including, as far as we understand, with the approval of the European Securities Market Supervisory Authority.
Without them, this decision could not simply be formalized purely legally.
And after all, no Brexit, excuse me, did not interfere with these sunny people.
Anyway.
The main content here is still not in this, but in the fact that the bureaucrats from the European Securities Market Supervision Authority were finally able to squeeze out the main thing from themselves: the markets they supervise are somehow entering a twilight state.
And it is the collapse of the institution of exchange pricing here that is the main symptom.
And here you don’t have to go far for examples - just look at the main commodity, namely oil: the London gas machinations are still too caricatured (although for purely procedural reasons they are extremely harmful for European markets) to speak of them seriously as that have stood the test of time.
But in the oil markets, we see all the same, excuse me, symptoms: even the same notorious petroyuan, in connection with which there is so much panic now, is not a panic about the petroyuan as such.
The multipolar world, which we are now building together with the Chinese as an alternative to the Western one, does not provide for such at all, and even somewhere, but on Wall Street, they cannot fail to understand this.
So this panic is about a completely different reason, namely, about the removal of the pricing mechanism from the American commodity exchanges, and not at all because someone wishes harm to America (although many wish it harm, why hide it).
But because it "crumbles" and stops working.
And this is done, by the way, not by Beijing at all, but by Riyadh (with the friendly, of course, neutrality of Moscow, without which Riyadh would definitely not have succeeded here).
It’s painful, sorry, the Arabs didn’t like the oil crisis arranged by stockbrokers – even before any COVID-19 – with “negative prices” for the commodity group that is basic for the Saudis: remember, probably, “negative oil prices”?
So, the Arabs then decided, and absolutely justifiably, that matches are not toys for children, especially if the children are morons.
If they are able to focus on something, then only on their own profits in the moment, and then, excuse me, even though oil is not produced and even though the grass does not grow.
And if anyone else is not in the know, then this is precisely the regulation of oil prices on their own, without the services of the New York Commodity Exchange, for example, is the main task of the OPEC + agreement.
So the people from ESMA, in general, are certainly right, but their reaction, as it were, is softer, somewhat belated.
There is such an anecdote, you know, about the fallen off kidneys of the girl Lucy, which are too late to be treated with Caucasian mineral waters.
Yes, and any other late.
It's just that for European and - more broadly - Western (in Europe it's all just a little more convex) markets, it seems that twilight times are coming right before our eyes.
And this is a good signal, including to our functionaries of the financial and economic bloc, who are still guided by “Western standards” (which they are not embarrassed to talk about in quite official interviews): we probably shouldn’t do this anymore.
And not for ideological reasons.
There are no more of these standards, they do not work a damn thing.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.