Economics & Markets

It is something of a regret that I did not spend more than six weeks studying Economics at the London School of Economics, largely on the basis that I had the feeling it was an inferior place to Oxford. This may have been a mistake. But apparently not one that would have made a difference…

There are times when this Old Badger just doesn’t know where markets are going next. What I do know is that when markets feel uncertain on direction, it’s a sure sign something is going to change. The direction of bond, commodity and stock markets depends on answering a simple question: Is the world headed for…

The Markets Surprise, surprise! The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted to keep interest rates at 0.5% for another month, a decision that the British Chamber of Commerce’s Chief Economist David Kern described as correct, “particularly at a time when inflation is down to zero and likely to fall into negative territory in…

The Markets Activity in the UK services sector accelerated during March according to the latest PMI survey data, which suggested the sector experienced its quickest rate of expansion since August. Markit, which carries out the industrial surveys, said that results for the first three months indicated UK GDP growth of 0.7%, which would be a…

Planting the Seeds The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is often seen as one of the worst ever crises faced by the US economy. The capitalisation of the S&P 500 was halved, the unemployment rate was doubled, and the Federal Reserve had to go out of bounds in rescuing the economy to avoid the collapse of…

As my contribution to this first edition of Master Investor, I have decided to clarify some points concerning regulation of AIM. This is partly because it is not understood and partly because it is complex and unusual. AIM is a division or franchise (as the LSE likes to promote it) of the London Stock Exchange.…

Jim’s top 3 thoughts of the month: 1 – QE will not successfully stimulate European economies. 2 – After making 130% on Apple, I would now go short. 3 – Synergy Pharma as trading buy. I am writing this in my flat in Berlin, looking out over the Reichstag, scene of heavy fighting at the…

Economic analysis by Filipe R. Costa Long gone are the days when central banks used to target monetary aggregates in order to attain price stability. Until the early 1990s, central banks thought the correlation between the money supply and inflation was strong enough for them to be able to define as their intermediate objectives some…

The Markets The Office for National Statistics has said that UK productivity levels remain below those in 2007, with recorded figures showing a drop of 0.2% in the final quarter of 2014. While alternative measures such as output per worker were more positive, Vicky Redwood, UK Economist at Capital Economics, said that “this still isn’t…