Nordea Retracts Research Note Citing Conspiracy Theories and Nazi References
Nordea Retracts Research Note Citing Conspiracy Theories and Nazi References
(Bloomberg) -- Nordea Bank Abp retracted a controversial research note where senior analysts referred to governments battling Covid-19 as “lockdownistas” and questioned the efficacy of the vaccines.
The Nordic region’s biggest bank on Wednesday said it’s starting an investigation into a note, “Nordea weekly: Papers please, and how to trade them!” after taking it down from its website. The analysis, published on Sunday, caused a stir on Twitter after a member of the Finnish parliament, Mikko Karna, questioned its contents.
“It used to be ‘two weeks to flatten the curve,’ but somehow it has developed to ‘imprison the unvaccinated (or worse)’,” Chief Analyst Martin Enlund and Global Chief Strategist Andreas Steno Larsen wrote in the note. “The vaccine is apparently so good that you need to force people into taking it.”
They also made a Nazi reference and suggested booster shots actually increase transmission of the coronavirus.
“Leaving aside the lessons from the Nuremberg trials such as bodily integrity, informed choice, the impact on civil liberties, and so on (because who cares?), lockdown policies, vaccine mandates and so on do carry costs. School closures can lead to children missing out on education, and with humans being social animals, locking them up or reducing socialising also carry costs even if these will not be visible in GDP figures,” Enlund and Steno Larsen wrote.
The Nordea analysts aren’t the only ones who have landed in hot water for controversial remarks in their research. In September, Deutsche Bank AG analyst Jan Schildbach slammed the “qualifications” of German regulators as well as a “failed” government-backed pension system, prompting an apology from the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing.
In 2019, UBS Group AG put its chief economist on temporary leave over remarks he made on pork in China. Commerzbank AG withdrew a research note from its Wirecard AG analyst after she dismissed reporting on the company by the Financial Times as “fake news.”
In a post on Twitter late on Wednesday, Nordea said that the views set out in the analyst note do not reflect its official stance and the analysis “unfortunately misses the mark” in the way it is communicated.
No further comment was available from a Nordea spokesman contacted by Bloomberg and the bank declined to say whether the analysts are still employed at the bank. Steno Larsen declined to comment, when reached by Bloomberg. A call to Enlund’s mobile went unanswered and he did not immediately respond to a message requesting a comment.
Enlund, 45, who joined Nordea in 2014 as chief analyst, had previously worked at Svenska Handelsbanken for nine years doing economic analysis. Steno Larsen has spent the bulk of his career, more than 10 years, at Nordea in various foreign exchange market roles, working his way up the ranks to become chief global strategist on macro, FX and rates in February 2020.
Both have frequently criticized official responses to the pandemic on Twitter, posting charts peppered with memes and using hashtags such as #dumbflation.
Enlund hails from Sweden, known for its initially more lax policy in the face of the pandemic that led to proportionately more deaths and its neighboring countries, such as Steno Larsen’s home Denmark that has mandated lockdowns and face mask use during the outbreak.
Among other research publications, the two write a weekly note at Nordea, using evocative language and often unusual expressions, such as an October note entitled just “AAAAAAAAAAAH!” discussing the front-end of the USD curve going “BANANAS” and saying Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell would have to “walk on eggshells.” In another note they referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a czar, and another time they asked “How many cubic metres of natural gas is Donbass worth?”
On Sunday, the note offered advice on how to trade against the official response to the pandemic.
“Being short Fauci and his European counterparts has been a 100% hit ratio strategy throughout the pandemic and it remains the case in our view. The lockdownistas are back in the drivers seat,” the men wrote.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.