A wider perspective.

Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.

Money and the theory of exchange

Evidence mounts that the global credit cycle has turned towards its perennial crisis stage. This time, the gathering forces appear to be on a scale greater than any in living memory and therefore the inflation of all…

Read the article

Market Report: Gold in doldrums at $1500

Gold and silver traded in a narrow range this week, with gold still stuck around the $1500 mark. Turnover in silver dropped off as volatility declined. By early morning trading European time today, gold had declined $5…

Read the article

Monetary failure is becoming inevitable

This article posits that there is an unpleasant conjunction of events beginning to undermine government finances in advanced nations. They combine the arrival of a long-term trend of rising welfare commitments with an…

Read the article

Market Report: Rollercoaster week for PMs

Gold and silver sold off this week, with gold trading down to $1459 intraday on Tuesday, and silver sold down to $16.89. Dollar strength based on the suspicion that the recent repo turmoil was to do with dollar…

Read the article

An Inflationary Depression

Financial markets are ignoring bearish developments in international trade, which coincide with the end of a long expansionary phase for credit. Both empirical evidence from the one occasion these conditions existed in…

Read the article

The Ghost of Failed Banks Returns

Last week’s failure in the US repo market might have had something to do with Deutsche Bank’s disposal of its prime brokerage to BNP, bringing an unwelcome spotlight to the troubled bank and other foreign banks with…

Read the article

Measuring Recession

Using nominal GDP, or GDP deflated by the CPI, as the principal guide to the state of the economy is a common mistake which will eventually prove very costly. Having convinced themselves that GDP measures economic…

Read the article

Overthrowing The Establishment

Trump and Johnson face a common enemy in their complacent and costly establishments, but it is wrong to think they share a common approach to government business and finances. For the moment, all attention in Britain is…

Read the article