The Fractured Flask

2008. Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first business meeting of what would become the best-known chemist team since Nobel-prize winners Molina, Crutzen and Rowland was not auspicious.  Pinkman wanted to cook as an artist, with chili powder. White, called Pinkman's chili-p recipe -- garbage. In-turn, Pinkman dismissed White's science; all he needed was a big jar. He was actually referring to a volumetric flask, which as - the appalled chemistry teacher Mr. White responded - is for general mixing and titration you wouldn't apply heat to it. That's what a round bottom 5000 millilitre boiling flask was for. Pinkman's flasks almost certainly fractured often and leaked out.

It is the metaphor of the fractured flask, the punctured pail -  the leaking bucket - that Jeff Snider uses, in this the 18th episode of Making Sense, to explain why the inflationary concoction created by monetary technocrats isn't boiling over.  First, we discuss why the Federal Reserve's monetization of debt isn't inflationary.  Second, we review the latest inflation readings from the United States.  Finally, Snider explains why the accelerating size of the US Treasury's checking account isn't inflationary either.  It is all about the metaphor - technocrats and politicians pour inflationary water in yes, but not only is the bucket not a full one, ready to spill over, but it's perforated.

Well, to head off a letter writing campaign, this podcaster acknowledges that a fair number of you dear listeners feel your podcasting team missed the opportunity to employ the metaphor of the leaky cauldron. To cast central bankers as a coven of warlocks preparing a witches brew of inflation. However, your podcaster prefers the analogy of the fractured flask. The technocrats style themselves as scientists, not magicians. They surround themselves with very rare 800 millilitre Kjeldahl-style recovery flasks and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models, Griffin beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks.  The tragi-comedy is that despite the scientific accouterments, they go about it in a Pinkman-like manner. Heating volumetrics, adding adulterants like yield curve control, bank reserves and chili-p.

----------WHERE----------
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----------WHAT----------
So Long As The Bucket Is Full of Holes, Treasury Demand Comes First
Transitory, The Other Way
Wait A Minute, The Dollar And The Fed’s Bank Reserves Are Directly Not Inversely Related
A General Sense of Treasury’s General Account

----------WHO----------
Jeff Snider, Head of Global Investment Research for Alhambra Investments with Emil Kalinowski, Pinkman.  Artwork by David Parkins.  Podcast intro and outro is "Full House Dusk" by River Foxcroft, at Epidemic Sound.