Brave New World
Back to homepage
Stock Markets Celebrate Whilst Real Economy Mourns
Stock markets celebrate, ending November on record highs as cash poured into equities to deliver an early Christmas to investors. The Nikkei enjoyed its best month since 1990 with a gain of 16.7% only to be bested by Italy’s FTSE
Read More
EY: Threats and Opportunities in a Post-Covid-19 Economic Context
A statement currently circulating on social media warns that “it is strange that certain world economies easily collapse when consumers buy only what they need”. Statements like this often contain some degree of truth. The social isolation linked to the
Read More
UK Struggles with Economic Illiteracy as Crisis Worsens
Britons’ grasp of basic economics is tenuous at best and more likely than not, virtually inexistent. A report commissioned by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that most people in the UK lack the ability to assess economic performance
Read More
Orban on Orbán: Cease and Desist, Your Position Is Untenable
Europe’s other ‘Orban’ sounds much more reasonable than the vociferous original one. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban of Romania yesterday chastised his Hungarian namesake for refusing to respect the founding principles of the European Union: “Saying that you don’t agree to
Read More
World Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure: Now is the Time to Rethink Transport and Logistics
Covid-19 has had a huge impact on transport. The response to the pandemic, from social distancing to lockdown policies for affected areas, has disrupted mobility and connectivity everywhere. It has had cumulative impacts on the basic infrastructure and systems that
Read More
Moderna Delivers Booster Shot for Wavering Markets
Equity markets received a potent booster shot on Monday and barrelled ahead on news that a vaccine developed by US biotech group Moderna had obtained an astonishing 94.5 percent inoculation rate in late-stage trials. On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500
Read More
Joe Biden No Panacea to Global Trade Troubles
The imminent departure from the White House of the self-styled dragon-slayer does not necessarily bode well for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Though the incoming Biden Administration is expected to take a less ideological approach to international trade, a reappearance of
Read More
Fed Chair Powell: “Recovering to a Different Economy”
A river runs through it. President Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank (ECB) argues that safely fording the ‘big river of uncertainty’ that runs through the global economy requires a sustained fiscal and monetary effort. Major interventions by central
Read More
Commissioner Gentiloni on EU Economy: Andante Ma Non Troppo
The V-shaped economic recovery expected to unfold next year is merely an illusion sourced from wishful thinking. Yesterday, EU Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni warned of a double-dip recession and said the European Commission mulls an extension by at least
Read More
Investors Depart as Tech Stocks Come Under Assault
Zoom zonked out this week. Investors dumped shares in the videoconferencing service during a wholesale selloff that drove the company’s shares over the cliff, lopping 17 percent off its market cap on Monday and another 6 percent yesterday. A more
Read More