I spend a lot of time attending finance seminars on all manner of subjects. This week I was at a very interesting seminar about quality standards in industry as defined by the BSI (British Standards Institute), the people with the Kitemark – a logo that has the same brand awareness as Pepsi (something they are…
As seen in the February issue of Master Investor Magazine. By Stephen Sanderson, Executive Chairman, UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC When my generation of petroleum geologists began our careers in the late 1970s, it was a widely-held belief that oil reserves would be close to exhaustion by now. Prices were forecast to be hundreds of…
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…
One thing central banks fail to acknowledge is that their medicines are a kind of chemotherapy that, while attempting to eradicate a problem, often end up damaging everything else at the same time. QE in particular is one of those unconventional treatments that should always be used with parsimony because of its extreme side effects.…
One of the things that I find most irritating about the beliefs of some of those on the further outreaches of modern right-wing political belief is their habit of confusing democracy with capitalism. I can understand why they do it: consumption is for people and democracy is the people; therefore, capitalism satisfies the economic needs…
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…
Last night, I went to the Hilton in Park Lane, London, to listen to an interview conducted by Jon (yes, that’s the way it is spelt – very liberal, trendy) Snow and Elon Musk. Elon Musk, as readers know, is the polymath founder of PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, and in his spare time came up…
When I woke up today I was shocked by the news that the BOJ had cut its benchmark rate to -0.1% overnight. At a time when the FED is fighting to normalise its policy and the ECB is entertaining investors to delay further QE, the BOJ decision comes as a major blow and a huge…
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…
