Russia's incursion into Crimea and the Western, particularly US, posturing about economic and financial consequences brought to mind the earlier circumstances which created the enormous eurodollar futures market. The above picture illustrates how large the market was when it was floor based and it's only grown since transitioning almost fully electronic. As I traded in there and continue to make it the only market I trade (electronically now), my bias is apparent in calling it the greatest pit that ever existed. Whereas other large pits were generally momentum (some use the term "meathead") oriented such as the S&P or bond pits, the eurodollar market is a big chessgame based upon spreading which explains why it grew exponentially.
Getting back to the original topic, the eurodollar market was developed in the early 1950s as Communist governments moved their dollars outside US jurisdiction to avoid potential confiscation or asset freezes.
Wikipedia presents a succinct historical account:
"Gradually, after World War II, the quantity of U.S. dollars outside the United States increased enormously, as a result of both the Marshall Plan and imports into the U.S., which had become the largest consumer market after World War II.
As a result, enormous sums of U.S. dollars were in the
custody of foreign banks outside the United States. Some foreign countries,
including the Soviet Union, also had deposits in U.S. dollars in American
banks, granted by certificates. Various history myths exist for the first
Eurodollar creation, or booking, but most trace back to Communist governments
keeping dollar deposits abroad.
In one version, the first booking traces back to Communist
China, which, in 1949, managed to move almost all of its U.S. dollars to the
Soviet-owned Banque Commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord in Paris before the
United States froze the remaining assets during the Korean War.
In another version, the first booking traces back to the
Soviet Union during the Cold War period, especially after the invasion of
Hungary in 1956, as the Soviet Union feared that its deposits in North American
banks would be frozen as a retaliation. It decided to move some of its holdings
to the Moscow Narodny Bank, a Soviet-owned bank with a British charter. The
British bank would then deposit that money in the US banks. There would be no
chance of confiscating that money, because it belonged to the British bank and
not directly to the Soviets. On 28 February 1957, the sum of $800,000 was
transferred, creating the first eurodollars. Initially dubbed "Eurbank
dollars" after the bank's telex address, they eventually became known as
"eurodollars" as such deposits were at first held mostly by European
banks and financial institutions. A major role was played by City of London
banks, as the Midland Bank, now HSBC, and their offshore holding companies.
In the mid-1950s, Eurodollar trading and its development
into a dominant world currency began when the Soviet Union wanted better
interest rates on their Eurodollars and convinced an Italian banking cartel to
give them more interest than what could have been earned if the dollars were
deposited in the U.S. The Italian bankers then had to find customers ready to
borrow the Soviet dollars and pay above the U.S. legal interest-rate caps for
their use, and were able to do so; thus, Eurodollars began to be used increasingly
in global finance."
Now with the eurodollar market well established, Putin doesn't need to focus on asset sheltering during an invasion and can instead spend more time doing what he does best: dangling and sniping.
