Emerging market stock markets, bond markets and currencies have suffered much more than developed country markets during 2008, in spite of the original real estate bubble and credit disaster having been contained almost entirely in rich countries. That suggests that globalization, by which emerging markets gain capital and access to developed markets for their goods […]

Canada’s election result, in which the moderate conservative government of Stephen Harper gained substantially in strength, garnered surprisingly little comment south of the border. That’s a pity, because when you look at Canada’s economy it becomes clear that under Harper the place has been run by grown-ups. Inevitably in this political season the sad thought […]

How you view the stock market crash of the last week depends on your understanding of the last 13 years. If you thought the Dow Jones Industrial Index at 14,000 reflected real values, you doubtless think the crash is an appalling event, leading to a depression of 1930s dimensions. If like me you believed the […]

Since November 2000, this column has warned of a wide variety of economic and market disasters that have appeared impending. With almost 400 columns, a number have been plain flat-out wrong, as well as the innumerable ones that were more or less repetitive of previous effusions. Nevertheless, in the last few months, this column’s varying […]