Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.
The gold standard is slowly becoming a mainstream discussion point again. This is in part thanks to recent calls from US Republicans for another congressional “gold commission” to examine the idea of restoring some form…
Read the articleMy father, who at one time was an education minister in the Kenyan government, used to tell a story of a long-forgotten crisis when the leaders in the educational establishment could only turn to him and ask: ”minister,…
Read the articleTwo Bloomberg correspondents reported on August 8 that the US Government’s unfunded liabilities rose by $11 trillion last year, “ten times larger than the official deficit”, and are now at an estimated $222 trillion.…
Read the articleDespite the pause in monetary stimulus and the huge expectations built up over QE3, the truth is that US money supply continues to grow at a healthy pace, proving that the supposedly “sterilised” Operation Twist is…
Read the articleInterventions in markets by governments and central banks are routine and we take them for granted. No one questions them, but they can create dangerous distortions. Their reason for intervening is to take price…
Read the articleIt’s almost as if currencies are designed to confuse you. In fact, sometimes they even lie to you. Take the pound sterling for example; each 5, 10, 20 and 50 pound note assures you, the esteemed owner, the gracious…
Read the articleAs the first “too-big-to-fail” euro-periphery nation to have caught fire, many see Spain as the pivotal battleground that will determine the eurozone's future. Massive money printing by the European Central Bank is the…
Read the articleWe are coming up to the fifth anniversary of the financial crisis, at least for the UK’s banking system, because it was five years ago that anxious depositors were queuing up to withdraw their money from Northern Rock,…
Read the articleLike all things in life, when investing, having a high IQ is largely beneficial. It helps you to source the right information, analyse it and “know what to do”. Quite simple. But there’s a big difference between…
Read the article“The issuer’s promise” is a phrase I have used recently to describe the backing for fiat currencies. The purpose of this article is to define it further, given that it is increasingly likely to be challenged in the…
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