Expanding the Legacy
Expanding the Legacy
The US Federal Reserve celebrated the death of inflation with a bold interest rate cut. As the Federal Open Market Committee mulled its next move during a highly-anticipated meeting yesterday, its twelve members just hoped, and perhaps even prayed (this is, after all, America), that the reports of inflation’s death are not ‘greatly exaggerated’. The benchmark federal fund rate receded to five percent.
The withdrawal of banks from the high streets and neighbourhood corners is unsurprising. Today, most banks derive no more than three percent of their turnover from ‘traditional’ business operations such as fees and lending depositors’ cash to companies wishing to expand or families looking to buy a home. In 2022, the total assets of the financial sector in the UK amounted to a truly staggering $16.88 trillion - well over five time the aggregate output of the country’s entire economy. Those assets comprise mostly claims on other banks.
He lapped up life daringly, mastered the art of rebellion, and looked far beyond the horizon to find adventure and clam his restless soul. Just before the implacable woke crowd could ‘cancel’ him, biographer Sue Prideaux snatched Paul Gauguin from its claws. The French postimpressionist painter seemed ripe for the picking: the perfect candidate to be knocked off his pedestal, thrown from his perch, and relegated to the scrapheap of art history. It was not for a lack of trying that the über politically correct posse failed in its pursuit.
To placate its critics, the German government has temporarily reasserted control over the country’s borders. The measure is meant to stem the flow of immigrants entering the country to submit unfounded asylum claims. As of tomorrow, checks will take place on incoming traffic by roving border patrols.
The Republican campaign for the presidency is being shredded by an epic catfight between Trump groupies vying for the love and attention of their idol. Get the popcorn! Also: Kamala Harris Takes Advice from Chinese Sage and American Cheapskates Fail to Pay Up for Defence of Ukraine.
Whichever way US voters decide on election day, it’s the day after that causes most concern. A win by Donald Trump is unlikely to be contested by his opponents but promises to usher in a man who vowed to don the mantle of a dictator on his first day in office. Conversely, it is a foregone conclusion that a loss will be bitterly contested by Mr Trump.
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,...
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...
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...
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...
On the undulating plains of Eastern Ukraine, a region largely devoid of topographic features, tech wizardry powers and shapes the ultimate, and most lethal, cat and mouse game ever. Here, loss of human life and military kit is accompanied by an upset and the unravelling of modern military doctrine. Whilst...
A warbird is rising phoenix-like from the ashes. The lumbering yet graceful Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat of World War II vintage is about to receive a full makeover and re-enter production and service. Late last month, Catalina Aircraft of Florida announced the Next Generation Amphibious Aircraft (NGAA) based on...
Voters in Spain shied away from the extremes and handed a pyrrhic win of sorts to the opposition conservatives whilst also rewarding Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’ socialist party with a few extra seats in a hung parliament. Markets reacted with dismay at the inconclusive result of the vote which precludes...
Recognised as one of the world’s most prestigious management consulting firms, though no stranger to controversy, McKinsey & Company is quite sanguine about the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) to the economy. Early adopters of the technology could see productivity gains of up to 25 percent by 2030. Over the...
ChatGPT suffers from artificial hallucination with hints of sociopathy. If stumped, the much-hyped chatbot will brazenly resort to lying and spit out plausible-sounding answers compiled from random falsehoods. Unable to make it, the bot will happily fake it. In May, New York lawyer Steven A Schwartz discovered this the hard...
Echoes of the Franco Era still haunt Spain in subtle and often divisive ways. Now, a vibrant democracy, the country has taken decades to shed its past and rid society of the last vestiges and symbols of authoritarianism. A watershed moment was reached when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ordered the...