Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is horrifying. Western leaders, fearing a broader war, are responding primarily with economic sanctions. A prominent economic sanction has been Russia’s exclusion from the international payments messaging system Swift, presented as a powerful means of undermining its economy. But for a payments expert such as myself, this is something of a […]
Climate change and the ESG agenda are changing the way we think about places and their relative attractiveness to real estate occupiers and investors. Gone are the days when property investors could rely on a quick contaminated land survey, a check on the local zoning plan and a comprehensive insurance policy for their acquisition due […]
The fuss around Evergrande seems to be dying down, so now seems as good a time as any to reflect on what happened and try to put it all in perspective. The catalyst for Evergrande’s woes was China’s ‘three red lines’ policy. This is aimed at a forced de-leveraging to improve the health of the real […]
Nick Clegg is doing the same useful job for Mark Zuckerberg as he did for David Cameron’s Tories. In what many saw as a surprise move, Meta has promoted former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to its President of Global Affairs. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, Clegg is now “a senior leader at […]
As the dominant superpower since the end of World War II, the United States has played a core role in crafting the geopolitical status quo in Asia. US state-building operations were influential in the creation of liberal democratic regimes in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Furthermore, the semblance of a rules-based international order is a […]
Originally published May 2021. In their desperation to find a reason for why bitcoin is terrible-bad-destructive-awful and morally reprehensible, the crypto-obsessed authors of the Financial Times blog Alphaville – Jemima Kelly, Jamie Powell, Izabella Kaminska – are quickly running out of good choices. Their latest one is the environmental FUD, a classic in our world […]
Kicking good sense out of touch. For most of us, the pursuit of profit has been the primary driver of our businesses. Recently, a new constituent has emerged in the form of environmental, social and governance considerations, ‘ESG’. This new ‘stakeholder’ does not have profit as its primary driver. By the Treasury’s own estimate, the […]
Here’s who’s better at making money in financial markets. Artificial intelligence (AI) has now closely matched or even surpassed humans in what were previously considered unattainable areas. These include chess, arcade games, Go, self-driving cars, protein folding and much more. This rapid technological progress has also had a huge impact on the financial services industry. More and more CEOs in the […]
Our Proprietor’s somewhat unusual choice. Your choice of hero can reveal a lot, I reckon. Ronnie Reagan revered the ‘Duke’, John Wayne, and his canon depicting the lone cowboy standing up for freedom, decency and love of the land. In the 1980s, Neil Kinnock, trying to reform a dysfunctional Labour Party, wanted to be thought of […]
FTSE ST Real Estate Investment Trusts (FTSE ST REIT Index) decreased from 853.35 to 816.11 (-4.37%) compared to the last monthly update. The Singapore REIT index broke the support level of 816 to a low of 799, but has since rebounded to 816. Yield spread (in reference to the 10-year Singapore government bond of 1.78% as of 5 February 2021) […]
