It was a lesson that Norman Lamont learnt the hard way when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992. You can’t buck the markets when they really turn against you. Back in the day, sterling was part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, following a disastrous decision by John Major to enter the economically illiterate […]
LATEST NEWS : Spreading deflation across East Asia threatens fresh debt crisis
Deflation is becoming lodged in all the economic strongholds of East Asia. It is happening faster and going deeper than almost anybody expected just months ago, and is likely to find its way to Europe through currency warfare in short order. Factory gate prices are falling in China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan and Singapore. […]
LATEST NEWS : Zero growth best hope for Germany as confidence disappears
German business confidence continued to deteriorate in October amid fears that the eurozone could enter a triple-dip recession. The Ifo Economic Institute’s closely-watched business climate index tumbled to 103.2 in October, from 104.7 in September. This was well below economists’ expectations of a slight fall to 104.5 and represents the sixth consecutive monthly decline. continue […]
LATEST NEWS : RBS blows whistle on Swiss franc bank cartel
European regulators have fined three banks a combined €94m (£74m) for operating in a price-fixing cartel that included Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The taxpayer-backed British bank – along with JP Morgan, UBS and Credit Suisse – was found to have colluded to rig the price of interest rate hedging products, while RBS and JPMorgan […]
LATEST NEWS : World braces as deflation tremors hit Eurozone bond markets
Eurozone fears have returned with a vengeance as deepening deflation across Southern Europe and fresh turmoil in Greece set off wild moves on the European bond markets. Yields on 10-year German Bund plummeted to an all-time low on 0.72pc on flight to safety, touching levels never seen before in any major European country in recorded […]
LATEST NEWS : Europe will never be the same after Scot vote, nor will British euroscepticism
Each of Europe’s aggrieved clans sent witnesses to Scotland for the vote. Some were nationalities seeking statehood, some more explosively seeking Anschluss with a mother country broken by victors’ cartography after the First World War. continue reading at telegraph.co.uk
LATEST NEWS : America: your days as a global superpower are numbered
They say what goes up must come down. It’s been true of every global superpower throughout history, and now it’s coming to America. Within the next five years, China could account for a larger share of global GDP than any other country and knock the US off its perch as the world’s biggest economy, according […]
LATEST NEWS : Inflation – Crash Course Chapter 11
For close to 300 years, inflation in the US remained very subdued. Small spurts occurred around major wars (Revolutionary, Civil, WW1, etc), but after each, inflation quickly trended back down to its long-term baseline. If you lived during this stretch of time, your money had roughly the same purchasing power your great-grandfather’s did. But something […]
LATEST NEWS : A Brief History of US Money – Crash Course Chapter 9
Looking at the past 100 years of the US dollar’s history, one theme becomes abundantly clear: in times of crisis, the US government has no issue with changing its own rules or breaking its own laws. And those “temporary” emergency measures have a nasty habit of quickly becoming permanent. Among the more notable milestones of […]