When Swen asked me to get down to Cyprus to cover the olive harvest I thought this would be a dull assignment. But since arriving on Aphrodite’s enchanted island, I now understand that this country is a living case study in Eurozone post-bailout recovery. Let me explain. Cyprus is the most Easterly country in Europe.…
Yesterday the FT uncovered a series of meetings between ECB policymakers and the private sector that occurred just before the governing council meetings from which important, market-moving, interest rate decisions resulted. Central banks were made independent from the government to avoid an evident conflict of interests that allowed us to achieve more stable, lower inflation…
On 29 October we learnt from the BBC, that the Prime Ministers of both Finland and Estonia (snowy Baltic neighbours) had no idea what Mr Cameron was talking about. This was not due to some egregious Foreign Office failure to translate Mr Cameron’s speeches into all the major Finno-Ugric languages; but rather the simple omission…
It is bad news! The worst! Highly strung, highly paid investment banking economists are to be seen standing on the ledges of the top floors of investment banking skyscrapers, ready to hurl themselves off. Market and strategic analysts are reporting to suburban psychiatrists to get their neurosis levels topped up before committing frantic prose to…
Every year, in this season of mellow fruitfulness, I come to the Viva Mayr Clinic by the beautiful Worthersee Lake in Austria. The clinic is a sort of detox retreat, and I have been put on Diet no. 1, which allows for Lilliputian morsels of food on two occasions a day. Diet no. 0, on…
In the November issue of the MI Magazine I’ll have some concrete Indian investment ideas for you, not least some amazing e-commerce plays, as well as basic industries. Right now, I just want to consider the fantastic potential of the Indian cyber-scene. 1.2 billion people with a passion for cricket, gadgets and technology. (OK, I…
Starting with good intentions The idea of creating an independent central bank to assure that money flows efficiently through the banking system and in the direction of the real economy is good in principle. A central bank can provide high street banks with the necessary reserves for them to back up their lending activities, and…
By James Tuckett, Co-founder and CEO of investUP – the crowdfunding supermarket In July this year the word crowdfunding was searched on Google 450,000 times. You can crowdfund anything – from baking your mum an apple pie (yes, that happened), to your garage band’s debut. But that’s not where the real revolution’s taking place. The…
– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,365.27, a decrease of 51.75 points. – The FTSE 250 fell by 133.49 points to finish at 17,045.17. – The FTSE All Share dropped by 27.98 points to 3,484.16. – The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 742.88, down by 5.50 points. Oil producer BP (BP.) posted…
Qantas [QAN.AX] has just announced 40 more North American codeshares with American, WestJet and Alaska Airlines. They’ll have 200 codeshares in total. The glowing safety record of Qantas must be a factor in their success. Although it’s rather narcissistic to think that you might be so ‘lucky’ as to be one of a very elite…
