Inflation-linked US Treasury Series I bonds sales topped $40 billion as investors looked for ways to shield their cash from rising prices. The interest rate has two parts. The fixed rate is set by the Treasury for the entire lifetime of the bond. The variable rate is set twice a year and depends on the consumer price index. Each American can buy up to $10,000.

Money market funds (MMFs) invest in short-term debt products. In Europe, investors put €17.7 bln into MMFs in March, much less than $367 bln in the US. European MMFs have grown to €1.5 tln. Only around 40% are denominated in euros and they are focused more on bank debt than treasuries. Taking euros out of banks to put it in MMFs is pointless.

Companies sponsoring well-funded pension schemes can offload their obligations to insurance companies. 5,200 boards of trustees, with advisers and managers will be replaced by 8 insurers. Illiquid assets that are difficult to value, and processing of data of so many people will slow down this process, but the UK's financial landscape will change.

Money in all money-market funds climbed by $304 bln last month because of banking concerns and the higher yields of money funds. The amount might increase by another $1.5 tln over the next year, according to Barclays Plc. Whether fresh cash mostly finds its way into government instruments, will depend on the supply of attractive alternatives.

American workers are keeping large chunks of their retirement savings in cash to protect themselves from another slump in the stock market. It was surprising to see how fearful millennials were in terms of being invested in the market. Sticking with cash will make it harder for millennials to accumulate the $1.3 million needed to retire comfortably.

The government's "Powering up Britain" plan underestimates the task of decarbonisation of electricity by 2035, and removal of all "dirty fuels" by 2050, which represent 76% of total UK energy consumption. There was no attempt to model and cost the needed changes. What is needed is a 400% increase in electricity production and a recabling of the country.

The tightening of EU criteria for green investment has led asset managers to remove the label from €175bn of funds, reducing the size of the market by 40%. The EU commission might now scrap the Article 9 category altogether. Hardly any investment fund meets the 100% sustainability criteria. The EU also still lacks official guidance on using ESG labels.

Paul McCulley: “We always refer to Treasuries as the world’s safest asset. That’s from the standpoint of credit quality. That’s not from the standpoint of asset price stability. There’s a huge difference.” Treasuries posted their worst losses since at least the early 1970s. Another issue is liquidity. In the past month, it has been “significantly compromised.”

The Global Wind Energy Council said “spare capacity” in wind energy manufacturing was “likely to disappear by 2026”. It will hit the US and Europe particularly hard, as much of the supply chain is concentrated in China. Singaporean shipping group Marco Polo is warning of a “big vacuum” of the large vessels required to install offshore wind turbines.

US wind developers installed 6.7 GW of onshore capacity last year, a 56% drop from the prior year. The drop was the result of the eliminated production tax credit. The Inflation Reduction Act signed in August restored the value of the tax credit. The offshore sector, meanwhile, has struggled to move forward amid inflation and mounting political push-back.

Countries like France and Poland support nuclear, while Germany and Austria oppose it. Ursula von der Leyen said that only “cutting edge” nuclear technology such as small modular reactors might get access to simplified rules and incentives in the EU’s net zero Industry Act and that it would not be eligible for all the benefits of the legislation.

Energy regulator Ofgem plans to tackle the practice that involves generators warning the electricity system operator that they are turning their power plants off at times of peak demand and then offering to keep them running in exchange for a “balancing” payment. This created £525m of extra revenue in 2018-2022, over 90% of it in the last two years.