Global gyrations During the last decade we have played witness to massive capital movements around the world. Money has flowed from developed countries towards emerging markets, just to flow back in the opposite direction at a later date. While lifting barriers to capital movement has helped intensify global trade and accelerate the development process of…
Over the last week much ink has been spent in trying to pinpoint the Fed’s next policy moves from a meticulous analysis of April’s FOMC Minutes. But such a precision exercise seems redundant now because, only one week after the Minutes were released, the FED has already cast doubt over everything. Policymakers have been tweaking…
The Australian economy has been hit hard by a global decline in the demand for commodities, a fierce currency war between major central banks, and the false prospects of interest rate hikes in the US. Reflecting these deteriorating conditions, the Aussie declined from 1.10 against the US dollar in 2011 to 0.70 in 2015. But,…
As seen in the lastest issue of Master Investor Magazine Turkey is now a key regional player with a dynamic economy but it sits on intersecting geopolitical fault lines. An ancient rivalry could trigger an earthquake. Writing in The Spectator recently, Charles Moore, that veteran commentator and author of the magisterial authorised biography of Margaret…
…Corruption is Endemic! One thing we have learned this week: when you are making small-talk with Her Majesty about weighty issues like global corruption, it’s best not to make bland generalising assertions like: Nigeria and Afghanistan are fantastically corrupt. Much better to make the assertion at one remove by quoting a trusted third party. So:…
As seen in the lastest issue of Master Investor Magazine I’m writing this on American Airlines flight from LAX to London; and the amazing thing is, I will be sending it by email from the plane to the Editor of this magazine in about an hour or so. There has been internet on US domestic…
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.…
