Archives for Macro - Page 13
Ukraine is effectively two countries (if not more); the east looks towards Russia and the west looks towards Western Europe. The EU has been meddling in Ukraine for some time, encouraging application for EU membership but being coy about its response. Russia also has a substantial interest in the future…
This expression was apparently first used by Mark Twain, who attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British Prime Minister. To quote Mark Twain: “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.” These are appropriate quotes today, where suspicion abounds about the “accuracy” of government statistics. While Chinese statistics…
In July 1944, at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, delegates from all 44 Allied nations involved in World War II sought to define and regulate the international monetary and financial system. In addition to the establishment of a number of global agreements (such as the General…
Gold (number 79 on the Periodic Table of the Elements), has been money ever since it was discovered. Today it competes against fiat currencies, especially the US dollar, in a competition it so far seems to be losing. We are all aware of the value of the printing press to…
I had breakfast last Friday with Mr Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs since 2006. I should mention that there were a few others present. The Australian’s Andrew White referred to the breakfast as “a room full of board and investment banking luminaries”, not sure where I…
Listening to commentary about China’s woes, there seems to be a sense that China has done its dash and will move to slow or no growth. While this may be so, it flies in the face of the historic record. China has been the world’s largest economy for most of…