Archives for Macro - Page 6
Alain de Botton (“AL-on de BO-ton”) is a contemporary philosopher, born in Zurich and based in London. His father (now deceased) is Gilbert de Botton, born in Egypt, moved to Zurich when Nasser kicked out the Jewish community, and founded Global Asset Management in 1983. Egypt’s loss. Alain has said…
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) has a great website that is well worth a visit. The chart below, interactive on the NOAA site, shows average May temperatures for the continental US since 1895. It can be seen that while there is a high degree of fluctuation, the…
There are currently 7.4 billion people on Earth, with a typical daily net increase of 150,000. This rapid population increase was only possible through the discovery and use of large quantities of energy. In the chart below, it can be seen that the population started to take off at the…
In the 1970’s John Exter created “Exter’s Pyramid”. The pyramid classified financial assets in terms of risk. The riskiest, and largest, asset class in the pyramid is derivatives. The least risky, and smallest, financial asset is gold. Read more on Exter’s pyramid here. Today, gold is unloved by many, from…
Minimum wage increases are one of the “flavours du jour” in the US. Even while it is widely understood that minimum wage laws do not make sense. California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, said, while introducing a minimum wage of $15/hour, “minimum wages may not make sense”. However minimum wage laws are…
Often, when a country’s trade growth slows, a competitive devaluation is attempted. Undervaluing the currency is expected to lead to improving trade, which in turn leads to currency appreciation. The trouble is that all can play that game, it is called currency war. It always ends badly, at least for some.…