Economics & Markets

African Dawn: Why African markets will rally in 2018

Imagine a continent which leads the world in mobile telephony banking and in fourth generation (satellite) internet access. This is…

The State of the (Spanish) Union

The Catalonian insurrection has been defeated by the will of Madrid - mercifully without ugliness. But many Catalans are resentful…

Shaking the magic money tree

Money doesn’t grow on trees – so we are told. Yet central banks like the Bank of England can create…

Mellon on the Markets

Another year, another pilgrimage to the JP Morgan Biotech conference in San Francisco, now in its 26th year. About 9,000…

The only 2 words you need to know in 2018

To Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman in Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate), the well-meant one-word piece of advice was “plastics”. To…

Unemployment in Emerging Markets should not spook investors

Developing countries like Kenya tend to have shockingly high rates of unemployment. But that should not deter investors – rather…

Is this market the best way to tap into African potential?

Kenya is once again politically stable and is fast becoming the most mature emerging market in Africa. Jambo!* When you…

Were we wrong to rescue the banks?

There are times when certain decisions have an unusual impact on subsequent events. We reach, in other words, a ‘fork…

Forget productivity – the most important thing is wages

The most important problem facing the UK government in 2018 is that wage growth has stalled. Mrs May needs to…

Mellon on the Markets: How to make money in 2018

It’s that time of the year again: when the pundits look back and either tell you “I told you so”,…