Both stock and commodity markets have been stunned in the first couple of weeks of the New Year by a sharp decline in prices, which has surprised investors. However, with Fed policies since 2008 unprecedented, investors get surprised by a lot these days. We’re in uncharted waters, but there are reasons for thinking that the […]

It looks increasingly likely that David Cameron will produce a modest list of “reforms” at the next EU meeting in February, after which some time next summer the British people will be asked to express their view on whether to leave the European Union. The possibility of “Brexit” appears full of risk, a fact that […]

Saudi Arabia and Iran lurched into a dangerous situation last week, with Saudi Arabia executing a Shia cleric and Iranian militants the attacking the Saudi embassy, which has now been closed. The United States is inevitably involved, with troops in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet it’s difficult to see what vital U.S. interests are at […]

Imagine a game of Monopoly(™ Parker Brothers) in which the money supply for each player was infinite. You would see a glut of houses on all available spaces, followed in due course by a glut of hotels. Players would never go bankrupt, and all available spaces would be built until they could not physically hold […]