As I have been telling anyone that I can buttonhole at drinks parties for some time, we are living in the age of Alice in Wonderland Economics. Alice in Wonderland Economics is the weird world where investors, such as pension funds, pay to lend to governments which are crippled by debt. (Germany, Japan, Denmark and…
Over the last few months we have witnessed a series of presidential primary elections and caucuses to determine which candidates will represent the Democratic and Republican parties (among others) in the final stages of the US presidential race. The last few months have been not only a time for reflection about economic, political and social…
In the words of Bob Dylan, ‘the times, they are a changing’ Sitting through Donald Trump’s speech after the results of the Indiana Primary, which saw the withdrawal of Ted Cruz (who, like someone else, also has eyes like Caligula) and the triumph of Donald Trump himself, I pondered how the world had changed and…
So, they finally mustered the courage to do it! The €500 note will no longer be produced in the Eurozone, in order to “fight illegal activities and terrorism”, the ECB claims. But, behind that false moralising lies a bigger plan to scrap cash and force people to depend ever more on banks for their money.…
The fall of BHS has triggered an almost hysterical reaction amongst the leftist commentariat, not because they ever shopped there (they go to Zara and Gap), but because they think it provides first-hand evidence of how the system leaves honest occupational pension scheme members in the lurch. I don’t know how many times the figure…
I feel sorry for Janet Yellen, I really do. Since coming to office as chairman of the FED in 2014 she has been unable to do what she knows must be done: hike interest rates. But her predecessor Ben Bernanke flooded the market with so much money and pushed interest rates so low that every…
What a week that was! Her Majesty the Queen turned ninety. The Bard passed away exactly 400 years ago. St. George’s Day last Saturday coincided with the Master Investor Show, which was a sell-out. And then Obama turned up, wished the Queen Happy Birthday, told us to get to the back of the queue and…
As seen in the latest issue of Master Investor Magazine. An Interview with Patrick Birley, CEO of ISDX Swen Lorenz: Patrick, you run the ISDX, which when spelled out stands for ICAP Securities and Derivatives Exchange. In a nutshell, what does ISDX do? Patrick Birley: We are a fully regulated UK based stock exchange offering…
Nahendra Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister who came to power with the explicit objective of claiming India’s place amongst the world’s great powers. He was determined from the outset to put diplomacy to the service of India’s economic development, to strengthen ties between India’s increasingly influential diaspora and the motherland, and to take…
Let us think the unthinkable and bring the UK steel industry to the market and make a profit for the taxpayer. The market could do with a big cyclical play… Government in a changing and unpredictable world should be pragmatic. I say that in relation to the future of steel production in the UK. The FTSE…
