The turmoil we are currently seeing in stock and bond markets is just one battle in the war that has been going on in capital markets for a long time: debt versus equity versus central banks.
Continue readingTag Archives: politics
Businesses are complicit in Donald Trump’s siege on democracy
In a recent Financial Times article, various business executives expressed deep regret for their “Faustian bargain” with US President Donald Trump.
They should go ahead and express even deeper regret for their contribution to the serious undermining of democracy — not just in the US, but everywhere else.
Continue readingWhy Brexit is not ‘done’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will surely say that he got “Brexit done”, as he promised. However, in a sense, Brexit is only just beginning.
Debate starts on widening the mandates of central banks
The European Central Bank (ECB) seems to be wading deeper into political territory, opening an interesting debate on what exactly is the role of central banks.
The ECB recently published a guide to the banks under its supervision, explaining how it expects them to consider risks related to climate change and the environment in their business strategies and their risk management.
Black box or Pandora’s box? Central bankers face dilemma
By Mirela Roman
This “like-no-other” Covid-19 pandemic is clearly a dangerously unique event, with ongoing severe economic and social consequences all around the globe. Nassim Taleb has famously described the Black Swan and more recently, BIS researchers pointed to the Green Swan in reference to the impact of climate change.
But the Covid-19 Swan is quite a combination of colours. It is an ongoing emergency situation, with fear often overcoming hope while anxiety heightens amid a decline in living standards.
Is it too late to stop Facebook from destroying democracy?
Facebook started out by inspiring admiration for its ability to connect people and help them trace down long-lost relatives, former school mates and old flames.
But as it has grown bigger and bigger, Facebook increasingly looks like a black hole that swallows up small businesses, livelihoods, and, in the end, democracy itself.
Dominic Cummings makes the UK look bad in Brexit talks
Just like he “urged everyone to find closure” regarding Brexit following his victory in elections last year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week urged everyone to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings saga. But just like then, it is easier said than done.
Boris Johnson is about to reap what he sowed
By Michael Brett
So Boris, as he likes to be called, hopes he can reassemble a disjointed Britain. Under his benign leadership families that were torn apart by violently differing views on EU membership can be restored to harmony and domestic bliss.
The 29 million-odd people WHO DID NOT VOTE TO LEAVE THE EU in the 2016 referendum are to be dragged out willy-nilly to satisfy the 17.4 million who voted to leave. This is widely hailed as democracy.
Brexit rules the waves (which, incidentally, can only be used in future to transport goods at the cost of a hell of a lot more paperwork, restriction and delay). We will be poorer in the future than we would have been as EU members. Even the would-be leavers are forced to concede this.
How on earth did we land in this situation?
Boris Johnson’s Brexit bus is broken
As Conservative Party members vote for the next UK prime minister — the one who will maybe, possibly, finally take Britain out of the European Union — they face a depressing choice: neither of the candidates is prepared for the role, and neither will create any ‘Brexit dividend’.
Brexit is not the only attack on EU freedoms
Brexit may be the most prominent attack on the European Union’s four freedoms, but it is by no means the only one. Subtler attacks are multiplying. If they are allowed to continue unchallenged, the EU will eventually crumble.