Everyone understands what wind turbines are – and everyone knows what solar panels do (though few of us know exactly how photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity). Biofuels, however, remain the Cinderella of the renewables sector. Can you really grow bio-kerosene in a field to power a commercial aircraft? Yes, you can. Biofuels are emerging…
Is the Trump Bump over? President Trump’s Washington is paralysed. It has proven impossible to repeal Obamacare and to replace it with something more amenable to America’s skilled working class who resented paying more for medical insurance. These were the people who propelled Donald Trump to power. Top personnel are being hired and fired with…
Climate change is a reality. The glaciers are melting and the sea is getting hotter – with intractable consequences like rising sea-levels. But, that said, the climate models are inexact and we don’t know by how much temperatures are going to rise and how rapidly. This is largely a matter of reasoned conjecture. What we know for sure is…
An imminent stock market crash is more likely than investors might suppose. My recurrent nightmare this summer, partially informed by the modern Thucydides, (of whom more below) is that a stock market correction will begin in London when the Brexit negotiations collapse, possibly as soon as late October. But there is no longer such a…
How does a spendthrift state which consumes nearly 57 percent of its GDP change its ways? How does a regulated, highly unionised labour market become flexible? What can a modern economy do about an unemployment rate stuck stubbornly at over ten percent? And how do the French rate the Emperor Emmanuel’s first ten weeks in…
Thanks to action on climate change at international level, renewable energy (electricity generation by means of solar panels, wind power, heat pumps and so on) is the most rapidly growing industry on the planet. That doesn’t necessarily make it investible. Renewable energy is much more expensive than conventional power generation from hydrocarbons – and much…
Oxford BioMedica may have a cure for leukaemia. Its share price has soared since the last week of June. Its treatment uses a modified version of the HIV virus to insert a cancer-killing gene into patients’ cells. This is a stunning example of how gene therapy will revolutionise medicine in the future. And there are…
The minority UK Conservative government is under pressure to loosen the fiscal purse strings. Does that mean the dream of balancing the budget remains no more than a dream? Who would benefit? Will taxes have to rise? And what are the risks? Cardiac arrest in the Gilts market is a real possibility. Under pressure Boris…
Things are changing in the aviation business. Three new trends in aircraft technology are about to revolutionise the industry. First, a new generation of super-long range aircraft are coming into service, meaning that flights from the UK to Australia will soon all be non-stop. Second, aero-engines are becoming super-efficient, meaning lower fuel costs and less…
What does the composition of President Macron’s post-election government tell us about France’s likely reform programme? Were the four early resignations a sign of weakness or of strength? Is the young President in as strong a position as he looks? And, assuming things are going in the right direction, who will be the early winners…
