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.
To mitigate the harmful effects of climate change requires the mobilisation of trillions of dollars. IFC Regional Vice-President for Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean Alfonso García Mora is encouraged by the outcome of COP27.
Germany and the Germans struggle to get comfortable donning the mantle of leadership circumstance has thrust upon the country. The nation and its leaders are visibly shocked by the rapid demise of the old world order and the unfolding ‘Zeitenwende’: the epochal tectonic shift that began with a global geopolitical rebasing and reached a disconcerting apex with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Admittedly, public speaking did not come easy to Mr Buffett – aka the Oracle of Omaha. He repeatedly confessed to ‘great trepidation’ when it came to addressing gatherings during his time at college. Taking a Dale Carnegie course changed that for the better. In fact, Mr Buffett’s diploma from the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People is the only plaque displayed at the Omaha office from where he rules the Berkshire Hathaway business empire.
This week, a colourful cabal of cognoscenti gathered in Davos to offer diverse takes on the world’s most pressing issues. With climate change, war, pestilence, and a host of lesser plagues assailing the global village, there is no dearth of troubles nor a shortage of talking heads to address them. During a luncheon of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council on Wednesday, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser helpfully quipped that we all need to be mindful of the three Rs: Russia, Recession, and Rates.
Wars of conquest seldom end well for the would-be conqueror even if waged against a weaker neighbour. Somehow, those to be subjugated always seem to find unity in a resolve to spoil the plans and designs of the aggressor. Their plight is not dissimilar from the one that motivated colonised people to take on the world’s largest empires – and eject them from their native land.
Poor Francis. History didn’t end after all. Neither did liberalism triumph over the forces of evil. Possibly one of the most misunderstood or misinterpreted books of recent times, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man did not necessarily imply a happy ending to humankind’s convoluted narrative. Rather, Prof Fukuyama argues that, after the inglorious demise of communism, democratic liberalism remains as the only viable political edifice able to promote wellbeing, ensure freedom, and shelter diversity.
In a scathing indictment of the country’s political elite, Lebanon tumbled some 25 places on the annual United Nations World Happiness Index and now ranks only above Afghanistan as the most depressed (and depressing) country in the world. Severely dysfunctional states such as Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Somalia all trump the country formerly known as The Pearl of the East.
The dig is impossible to resist. On Thursday, tether – the world’s biggest ‘stablecoin’ – briefly became untethered from its dollar peg. Tether’s value sank to 95¢ before recovering to 97¢ That may seem a minor oscillation but indicates a bigger issue that does not bode well. Stablecoins are supposed to be, well, stable and fully backed by readily convertible assets. However, of late, the stablecoin universe has witnessed violent price swings and even implosions. TerraUSD (UST) last week crashed rather spectacularly after some minor initial wobbles not unlike those experienced by tether.
In President Vladimir Putin’s book everybody not excitedly cheering his ‘special military operation’ to liberate Ukraine is a Nazi. If the Russian press is to be believed, the worse of the lot are to be found in Finland and Sweden as those countries mull joining NATO – the new disguise of the Axis Powers. That blonde on platform shoes from Abba? A dancing Nazi. King Carl Gustav XVI? A royal Nazi. Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland? A closet Nazi. Her counterpart in Sweden Magdalena Andersson? A wannabe Nazi. The European Union? A conference of Nazis; and, of course, a thoroughly evil collective supporting its Ukrainian co-conspirator and Über Nazi Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a bear market, nobody can hear you scream. Equity markets are suffering a crash by stealth with reality nibbling away at asset values. Not long after he slipped into his job, Ben Bernanke, the two-term 14th chair of the US Federal Reserve (2006-2014), called quantitative easing – still a novelty in 2008 – a “great experiment that must be tried.” In the years that followed, the Fed duly flooded the market with an estimated $9 trillion.