Rate expectations
“It is no longer a secret that stocks, like bonds, do poorly in an inflationary environment.” – Warren Buffett, ‘How inflation swindles the equity…
The Fright Before Christmas, revisited
“One good thing about Christmas shopping – it toughens you up for the January sales.” – Grace Kriley. We first published the following doggerel…
Life, but not as we know it
“We have the best government that money can buy.” – Mark Twain. It says a lot about the financial establishment that the most revelatory…
Where she stops nobody knows
“No warning can save people determined to grow suddenly rich.” – Lord Overstone. We have seen a confluence of events that suggests we may…
The four words that define western economic policy
“The goods and services traded on the semi-secretive website Silk Road since February 2011 with the virtual currency Bitcoins were so varied that the…
Taper (where?) party
“This took guts.” – Comment by Steven Ricchiuto of Mizuho Securities in response to the Federal Reserve’s surprise decision to refrain from “tapering” its…
King Carney fails to command the tides
“Sir, Martin Sandbu writes: “We should not worry about inflation – if we strip out volatile or policy-driven elements, it stands at 1.5%, according…
Still waiting
“This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” – The Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde. The…
Enter the Guv’nor
“Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, could hardly have timed his arrival better. Even before he launched his bid to…
Global warning
“No bubbles. Because it’s normal for large liquid asset classes to nearly double in value over less than a year and then drop 10%…