A wider perspective.

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

Market Report: Trump goes native over Syria

The missile strike is being presented as a one-off action, just like the others. Trump has gone native. Gold and silver prices hardly moved most of the week, maintaining a firm undertone in quiet trade, until last night…

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The decline and fall of the EU

This article identifies the headwinds faced by the EU in the wake of Brexit. Without the UK, not only does the EU lose much of its importance on the world stage, but the Commission’s budget is left with an enormous…

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Market Report: Weekly DOE Oil Charts

Our quick take on the WEEKLY SUPPLY ESTIMATES published by the US Department of Energy (DOE) including detailed tables and charts. This week’s highlights: Small build in total petroleum stocks of 1mb, lower than…

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Market Report: Dollar under attack

Given it was option expiration on Comex this week, gold and silver performed well. One would have expected the takers to mark prices down to make as many call options as possible expire worthless. As it was, gold traded…

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Brexit triggered

And why Britain should succeed in the negotiations This is the week that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was triggered, and the two years of negotiation between the UK and the EU commenced. Following this period, the UK…

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Why free trade is officially dead

G20 Finance ministers meeting in Baden Baden last weekend agreed, on America’s insistence, to drop the long-standing commitment to free trade from the final communiqué. It is hard to know to what extent America’s…

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