Expanding the Legacy
Mum on Ukraine & Short on Climate
To text or not to text? That was the question. It took diplomats five days of frantic talks to find an answer. In the end, a compromise statement – of 83 paragraphs – was duly produced and unanimously approved by the G20 leaders assembled in New Delhi for their annual...
The Pinochet Legacy After 50 Years
On this day fifty years ago, a pleasant early-spring Tuesday, democracy fell to armed force in Chile. Absconded in La Moneda, probably one of the least gracious buildings erected by the Spanish colonial empire, the constitutional president of the country, Salvador Allende, fought a desperate fight against putschist generals. Plumes...
The Economics of a Band That Won’t Fade Away
After an 18-year hiatus, the Rolling Stones on Wednesday announced the imminent release of an all-new studio album. “We were just a bit lazy,” said Mick Jagger (80) by way of explanation. Hackney Diamonds was recorded last December over only a few weeks after the three remaining band members agreed...
The Great American Economy
Each year in spring, American families spread out impulse buys and other paraphernalia on their front lawn in a ritual known as the garage sale. Neighbours peruse each other’s wares and usually buy as much as they sell. The goods so acquired are stored in the garage which, in the...
On Freeters and Other Exotic Creatures
China, Europe, and even the United States are all said to be at risk of ‘Japanification’: a protracted malaise of low growth, low inflation, low interest rates, and skewed demographics necessitating quantitative easing on a massive scale. A lost decade, sparked in 1991 by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) trying...
After Fiscal Prudence, A Reckoning
In Germany, trains no longer run on time. This is a big issue for a country that derives its national identity from punctuality, order, and ‘Gründlichkeit’ – a thoroughness usually applied in a ruthless fashion. The neighbouring Swiss now refuse to grant late-running German trains access to their network for...
The Mingling of Politics and Business
What goes up doesn’t necessarily have to come down. A case in point: China. The last time the country’s GDP contracted was in 1976 (-1.57%) – the year both Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai passed away, the Cultural Revolution collapsed with the denunciation and purge of the Gang of Four,...
Central Bankers Debate Yield Curves
Whilst BRICS leaders discuss ways to challenge US hegemony and plot to overthrow the mighty dollar as the global reserve currency, the minders of the financial status quo are descending on Jackson Hole, a picturesque town and refuge for millionaires and artisans in Wyoming at the foot of the majestically...
South Africa Diplomatic Heft Lacking
A champion of moderation – and its own interests – India seems determined to thwart plans by Russia and China to transform the BRICS group of emerging economies into a non-aligned movement 2.0 (albeit one with a pronounced pro-Beijing tilt) as the five countries meet for their annual summit. This...
Argentina Turns to Eccentric Outlier
A far-right libertarian candidate with credentials that elsewhere would make presidential hopefuls blush has burst out of nowhere to claim centre stage in Argentina. Javier Milei (52), a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’, wants to shutter the country’s inept central bank, replace the long-suffering peso with the US dollar, abolish all but a...
