The big chill of recession and a banking panic now haunts black gold, exactly as it did in the last six months of 2008 when Brent crude plunged from $148 a barrel in July to barely $40 in December. Brent crude was $85 two weeks ago and plunged to a low of 71.4 on Friday. […]
When gas prices rose 150 percent from June 2020 to June 2023, politicians and the media didn’t hesitate to blame corporate greed. The evidence they offered was two-fold: rising prices and rising profits. Yet over the past six months, gas prices have fallen 33 percent. Are politicians and media congratulating oil companies for displaying altruism? No. Market skeptics […]
Insights into how financial contagion changed how central banks react during a crisis. This year’s Nobel prize in economics, known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, has gone to Douglas Diamond, Philip Dybvig and former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke for their work on banks and how they relate to financial crises. To explain […]
Another instalment in a series of articles detailing how to design a secure, income-producing portfolio In my previous article, I mentioned the reality that investment advisors, especially those affiliated with a large financial institution, operate with a very particular mandate, and that is to help their clients invest in a specific set of financial instruments […]
How do you know when you’ve gone far enough? That must be the question starting to dawn on the minds of central bankers in their current rate hike cycle. But having drifted so far from the normal rules based policy of monetary loosening during the pandemic, their responses seem to also be deviating from rules […]
In recent months, there have been a lot of negative news coverage about big tech’s, especially Meta’s, massive investments in augmented reality and the metaverse. I believe that this negative coverage is unwarranted. With the mass marketing of augmented reality (AR) wearables, such as glasses, headsets, or smart contact lenses, which are just around the […]
‘Wilful blindness’ describes the phenomenon of human beings not seeing what they don’t want to see. Not looking too hard might be another way of putting it. You and I can think of several examples if we try. It’s that time of year again. Sun sea, sand etc. Time for the European Property Industry to […]
The core investor’s playbook. Who would want to invest in an opportunity that was more likely to fail than succeed? In most fields of investing, including real estate, the answer is nobody. But for venture capitalists, it is a different story. “We are in the business of being embarrassed,” says Jim Goetz of Sequoia, one of […]
Alongside the Private Rental Sector, there is another segment of British property which can reasonably be considered to fulfil dual residential and commercial roles; where ones living abode doubles as a workspace. And whilst home working is hardly new to Britain, its nature is a world away from its distant largely farming and crofting days. […]
The data and price action last week reinforce my conviction that Wall Street risk assets are now in a classic Catch-22, heads I win/tails you lose scenario. The strong economic growth data we saw in February and spike in inflation metrics mean more Fed tightening than implied by the 5.4% terminal Fed funds rate and 3% […]
