Expanding the Legacy
A Reacquaintance with Inflation
An entire generation of workers, executives, and entrepreneurs has never experienced inflation and know the phenomenon only from history books. The Great Inflation of the 1970s is usually attributed to the sudden rise of oil prices after OPEC asserted its power in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. However,...
Russia Banished to Margin of Global Affairs
The Russia of President Vladimir Putin is becoming more isolated by the day as outpourings of indignation reach a fever pitch over the apparently indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian cities and towns.
Casting Russia Adrift
In a matter of days, Russia was unceremoniously cut off from the global financial system. Credit and debit cards stopped working, as did Apple Pay and a host of other services. Both Visa and Mastercard blocked Russian financial institutions from accessing their network.
Fortress Russia on Shaky Ground
The rouble took a pounding of note, losing almost a third of its value as soon as forex markets opened Monday morning. Equity trading was suspended whilst Russian financial authorities pondered the extent of the sanctions imposed over the weekend.
Putin’s ‘Technical Operations’ Unsettle Markets
In the early morning of Thursday, Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian military installations as markets in the far East opened for business and promptly took a beating in a rolling barrage that soon swept Europe and beyond. Stocks went down across the board whilst bond yields expanded on investor...
Africa Seeks to Cash in on Energy Crunch
Already jittery markets, largely without direction, are braced for a near-perfect storm as central banks taper their bond buying spree and shelling across the ‘line of separation’ in Ukraine intensifies – a possible presage to an all-out war on a scale not fought in Europe since World War II. Meanwhile,...
Russia: In Search of Lost Time
Before the shooting starts anew, let’s mention the war. Not the war we know, but the one that lives on in the often-indecipherable psyche of Russia, laced as it is with nostalgia and wounded pride. Widely recognised in the West as the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, Operation...
Markets Facing a Multitude of Crises
Central bankers are caught between their natural inclination to get a grip on inflation and a fear of abruptly deflating asset prices. In other words: the temptation to avoid engineering a bust after the post-lockdown boom.
Misguided Republican Anger
She called it a ‘beautiful sight to behold’ when student protesters stormed the building that houses the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Now Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is at a loss to explain why the spectacle of a mob assaulting the Capitol did not meet her approval....
Billions Showered on EV Technology
Earlier this week, the first lithium-ion battery cell rolled off the assembly line of Europe’s newest so-called gigafactory – a novel phenomenon usually defined as a manufacturing plant capable of churning out at least 15 gigawatt hours of cumulative battery storage. The facility, owned by the Volkswagen-backed startup Northvolt and...
