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When a factory wants to remove toxic waste, it charges a negative price for it: its managers pay someone to get rid of it. But when central banks begin to treat money like car manufacturers treat spent sulfuric acid, one knows that something is rotten in the kingdom of financialized capitalism
23 Sep 2022
Surging inflation and an ongoing economic slowdown should have hurt demand for the US dollar, and yet the greenback is at a 20-year high. The US economy’s relative strength and the Fed’s rapid monetary tightening will likely keep the dollar strong for some time
22 Sep 2022
Globalization survived Brexit and Donald Trump, and it appeared to be thriving even after the Covid-19 pandemic. But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the economic “mutual assured destruction” that was supposed to deter decoupling apparently reached its limits
22 Sep 2022
Despite August’s disappointing inflation numbers, the US economy is uniquely equipped to mitigate and overcome the current price surge, owing to its relative energy and food independence, abundance of immigrant labour, strong production capacity, and the capital needed to boost domestic manufacturing
21 Sep 2022
Kwasi Kwarteng, the United Kingdom’s newly-appointed finance minister, is said to be keen to do away with the cap on bankers’ bonuses, which the bankers who have been relentlessly lobbying for ever since it was introduced tell him will make the City more competitive as an international financial centre. Exactly how is unclear – to me at any rate.
19 Sep 2022
While the pound’s recent declines may evoke memories of the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis, sterling's weakness does not reflect a general loss of confidence in UK assets. But the newly announced plan to cap household energy prices may now lead to currency trouble by exposing the government’s balance sheet to huge potential losses
19 Sep 2022
While America’s Inflation Reduction Act is a historic achievement in its own right, its largest benefits will come in the form of global economic spillover effects. Ultimately, all countries will pay much less to cut their own emissions at the speed and scale necessary to keep climate change in check
19 Sep 2022
With recent data showing that both inflation and inflation expectations have eased, it would be irresponsible for the US Federal Reserve to create much higher unemployment. Amid so much uncertainty, it should instead pause interest rate hikes until a more reliable assessment of macroeconomic conditions is possible
14 Sep 2022
Uncoordinated interest rate hikes in the US and elsewhere have significantly increased the risk of a global recession. Fortunately, low inflation rates in China and Japan present policymakers with a narrow window of opportunity to overcome their mutual mistrust and coordinate their monetary policies
9 Sep 2022
The current financial system works just fine for criminals, but poorly for millions of others around the world, including dissidents in closed societies. By thoughtfully harnessing new blockchain-based tools, we could finally start to eliminate the old tradeoff between financial privacy and security
8 Sep 2022
After the current period of turbulence – and the difficult social, cultural, demographic and technological adjustments it entails – economic globalization will take off again. But the process will be hindered as long as political globalization fails to keep up
7 Sep 2022
As decarbonization depends on data, trust and transparency will be necessary to mobilize the capital needed to meet the country's ambitious climate-change targets
4 Sep 2022
Some earlier big run-ups in the US currency’s value, including in the mid-1980s and the early 2000s, were eventually followed by sharp declines. But the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the period of extraordinarily quiescent major currency exchange rates, beginning back in 2014, is now history
2 Sep 2022
Choice overload has stained the personal finance industry. Today, investors often experience a state of paralysis, unable to arrive at a decision because their mind is overwhelmed by too many options. But even with an abundance of choice, investors in Singapore are not able to access the appropriate wealth management services for their specific needs.
2 Sep 2022
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