China’s current-account surplus was once one of the most controversial statistics in economics. The figure, which peaked at almost 10% of gdp in 2007, measures the gap between China’s earning and its spending, driven largely by its trade surplus and the income it receives from its foreign assets. For much of the past two decades, […]
It is hard to get a man to understand something, wrote Upton Sinclair, an American novelist, when his salary depends on not understanding it. Hard, but not impossible: just look at those paid to promote Britain’s stockmarket. Bankers and stock-exchange bosses have an interest in declaring it an excellent place to list new, exciting businesses, […]
Another unlikely triumph Source link
Introducing the cockroach theory of crypto Source link
“As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,” ran an early advertising jingle attributed to Johann Tetzel, a 16th-century indulgence salesman. Funding the church offered believers an alternative to paying for sins in the afterlife. The carbon-credit market promises something similar. Instead of reducing your carbon footprint, why not […]
It is part metaphor, part myth and part history. Thomas Hobbes thought life there was nasty, brutish and short. John Locke disagreed, proclaiming that it was where people first learnt how to own things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described it as the place where people were born free, before they became ensnared in chains. Robert Nozick thought […]
Sevva, a swanky bar and restaurant with electrifying views, has been serving bankers and sightseers for more than 15 years. From its terrace, you can peer over a cocktail and through the office windows of HSBC across the road. The restaurant’s cuisine is meant to be “fresh, simple and honest”. Yet it is not cheap. […]
Financial markets will always produce surprises. After all, by the time a consensus has formed, people will have bought or sold accordingly. The move has already happened; the future has something else in store. Source link
Could 2024 be a year unlike any in America’s post-war economic history? Never since 1945 has annual inflation, measured by the consumer-price index, fallen from above 5% to below 3% without a recession at the time of the fall or within the subsequent 18 months. Source link
By 2050 there will be a new crop of economic powers—if things go to plan. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, wants his country’s GDP per person to surpass the World Bank’s high-income threshold three years before then. Indonesia’s leaders reckon that they have until the mid-century mark, when an ageing population will start to drag […]