Archives for March, 2016
Graphene, the single layer of graphite, was first isolated by Professors Konstantin Novoselec and Andrew Geim at Manchester University in 2004. They won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2010 for “ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”. There are dozens, if not hundreds of different types of graphene commercially…
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.…
Optimism bias is the inclination of people to believe that they are more likely to be successful than others, and less susceptible to adverse events than others. A well-known example of optimism bias is that, when surveyed, the vast majority of car drivers believe they are better drivers than average,…
I previously posted on WCN in November last year. This update assumes familiarity with that post. On 1 December 2015 WCN released exceptional results for the Upper Gold Zone at the Aucu gold deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic (pronounced “Kirgiz”, also known as Kyrgyzstan). The best result was 4 metres…
According to the World Bank, Australia has a population density of 3 people per square kilometre. This is comparable to Libya and Mongolia, two countries that are also mostly desert. The population density of the US is 35, China 145 and the UK 267. Yesterday in Sydney was the 21st…
The chart below shows returns on various asset classes in USD for the first two months of 2016. For me, I am long gold and silver, but also oil. An average start to the year. The chart is courtesy Financial Visualisations, a site that is well worth a visit. So…