How cricket reflects our age. A game of cricket is an extended narrative. It’s also an exercise in cause and effect. Luck aside, if you play a bad shot, you may be dismissed; if you bowl a bad ball, you will probably be hit for runs and vice versa. There is a causal element of […]
As with other innovations, it carries risks as well as benefits. Originally published August 2021. There is this great cartoon where a man sits behind a laptop having a Zoom call at his kitchen table perfectly shaven and dressed in a shiny shirt with tie, but under the table he is in his boxer shorts […]
How Russia’s economy will struggle to pay the price of invading Ukraine. The invasion of Ukraine has placed Russia on the verge of bankruptcy. Interest rates have doubled, the stock market has closed and the rouble has fallen to its lowest level ever. The military costs of war have been exacerbated by an unprecedented level of international sanctions, sustained by a large coalition of […]
The Federal Reserve System manages the US’s money supply, increasing or decreasing bank credit and other circulating media to reach a target interest rate usually announced at meetings of the Open Market Committee, which meets eight times a year. They met this week, announcing the first of several modest increases in the federal funds rate. […]
Here’s how it played out. It’s impossible to predict how the crisis in Ukraine will progress, but the rupture in relations between Russia and the West is unlikely to heal any time soon. At the very least, trade between these two sides is going to be badly affected for a long time. To get a sense […]
Suppose you own a substantial number of shares – say, $500,000 worth – in Acme Corp, a manufacturer of home furnishings. And being a shareholder, you decide to attend the corporation’s annual meeting. You arrive early for a good seat, eager to hear what Acme’s president and CEO, Mr Jones, has to say. Taking the […]
An exercise in drawing parallels. The first cryptocurrency ETFs have recently been launched. This article briefly examines the concept of parallel markets (in particular that of a liquid proxy for an illiquid asset) and asks whether there are lessons to be learned for cryptocurrency markets from the development of the liquid real estate market. In […]
…and why you should think twice before playing them. Originally published September 2021. The gaming industry is big business in the US, contributing an estimated $240b to the economy each year, while generating $38b in tax revenues and supporting 17 million jobs. What people may not realise is that slot machines, video poker machines and other electronic […]
The winners and losers so far. It’s two weeks since the world woke up to the dreadful news of a Russian attack on Ukraine. Notwithstanding the incalculable costs in terms of human lives, as well as human capital and physical infrastructure, we’ve seen much turbulence in the financial markets. So what has happened so far? Since […]
Originally published November 2021. An impromptu decision reveals new angles in real estate research. A few years ago, I heard of a survey in which people were asked what language they would most like to learn. I expected the result to be Mandarin or Spanish or similar, but in fact the younger cohort responded Python. That a […]
