Sterling may fall to parity with euro declared a header in the Daily Mail City pages last week[i]. It was one of many stories reporting the warnings of the throng of professional Jeremiahs unleashed by the government-orchestrated IN campaign. Apparently, the gnomes (“strategists”) at UBS had spoken. Other queer fish at Goldman Sachs, HSBC and…
This morning the French Minister for the Economy, Emmanuel Macron, has announced that, post-Brexit, Paris will roll out the red carpet for the mass exodus of persecuted banker-refugees and traumatised hedge-fund-manager-asylum-seekers who will be thronging through the Channel Tunnel. One can imagine the pitiable scenes of these unfortunates, desperate to be reunited with their Swiss…
When I was young the word “security” denoted that one had the wherewithal to buy a cosy retirement bungalow in the Home Counties. Today, the word has been appropriated by politicians with Orwellian intent to mean protection from foreign invasion and from terrorism. (Here at least, they’ve been more successful in the former than in…
On Saturday morning David Cameron fired the starting gun. Finish point: 23 June. The biggest decision of our lifetime. Welcome to Referendum World. It’s a crazy new theme park where you’ll be taken for a ride. I’m not going to argue pro or con today; I’m just going to warn you: they have already started…
As seen in the February issue of Master Investor Magazine. If, like me, you’ve spent your entire adult life fearing inflation as the universal bogie, welcome to the pantomime world of Post-Modern economics. Because there’s another bogie even worse: it’s called deflation. For those of you who are not familiar with the great British tradition…
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides… Exodus 32:15. We always knew, deep down, that it would be like this. When the much awaited Agreement between Mr Cameron and Mr Tusk (Britain and the EU) was…
On 01 February we learnt that Russia is planning to privatise seven major state-controlled companies. They are: Aeroflot, the airline; Alrosa, the diamond miner; Rosneft, the oil major; Bashneft, an oil minor; Russian Railways (the most romantic railway company in the world, in my personal view); VTB, the state-wide retail bank; and Sovcomflot, the shipping…
The big story in the world’s financial markets over the last six months or so has been the fall of the Chinese stock market. The Dow Jones Shanghai Index (INDEXDJX:DJSH) hit a high of 713 on 12 June last year but fell to 452 by 08 July. Thereafter, it gyrated inelegantly throughout the autumn. But…
Virgin Atlantic 301. I’m heading home. At Indira Ghandi Airport I purchased a copy of Peter Francopan’s The Silk Roads – A New History of the World (at half the price of what it costs in the UK – another reason I love India). You may know that I discussed this book in my Postcard…
Drat! Had I arrived but one day earlier I could have heard both the ubiquitous Stephen Fry and superstar French economist Thomas Piketty. But they had already jetted out by the time I arrived, post-haste from my tour of Rajasthan. What’s more, there I was all geared up to hear Niall Ferguson this morning, when…
