Expanding the Legacy
Tag: Economy
43 Posts
Common Sense Rules Supreme at Berkshire Hathaway
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.
Seesawing Stock Markets Rattle Investors
And just like that… the party was over. Wednesday’s stock market rally, sparked by the dovish comments of US Federal Reserve Chairperson Jay Powell, not only fizzled out but reversed with Nasdaq suffering its biggest drop since June 2020.
Warren Buffett Casts a Vote of Confidence in US Stock Market
A perennial favourite of investors, the snow clone ‘What Would Warren Do?’, has an answer. Warren buys oil and other blue chips that show exceptional generosity towards shareholders. Over the first quarter, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ploughed some $41 billion of its $147 billiion cash pile, mostly insurance float, into the stock market.
Searching in Vain for a Dollar Alternative
The seizure of Russia’s dollar reserves, part of the first wave of sanctions decreed in response to Moscow’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, has a growing legion of pundits wondering if the time has come to look for a new global reserve currency. Some of the more outrageous suggestions suggest a fresh look at China’s renminbi and a renewed appreciation of bitcoin.
Exposing the Wage-Price Spiral Myth
Inflation equates thievery. It erodes the purchasing power of salaries and steals from creditors. Worse, most economists now issue dire warnings about the evils of a ‘wage-price spiral’ which is said to fuel inflation because workers demand compensation for the increased cost of living – essentially seeking to preserve the spending power of their income.
An Outsider on the Inside
When the going gets tough, Christine Lagarde has often been called upon to broker a deal or find the solution to a conundrum that baffles lesser minds. In a word: she gets going and likens that to being suspended from a ‘glass cliff’ – as opposed to bumping against a glass ceiling – a phenomenon whereby a complex and hazardous job is handed to a woman, making her success improbable, and affording men a measure of plausible deniability.
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...
Plucky Dubai Gets the Balance Right
Last year, Dubai registered a surprisingly sharp decline in its population. Almost eight out of every one hundred inhabitants left the country as the Corona Pandemic and a vertiginous drop in oil prices unsettled both nerves and the economy. Key sectors such as real estate, tourism, and retail suffered a...
President Bolsonaro Keeps Spending
Army generals are a mostly pliant lot. To reach to the top of the military chain of command it is advisable to follow orders from above without asking too many questions. This helps explain why presidents in Latin America prefer to entrust the running of state-owned enterprises to retired generals...
Investor Confidence Soars
FOMO is firmly in charge of the US stock market: the Fear of Missing Out has nearly all classes of investors – from retail to institutional – pouring vast volumes of cash into stocks. Excitement reaches new heights during the current earnings season with S&P 500 companies reporting an average...
