The Markets and Zeno’s Dilemma: Transcending the Complexity of Transfinite Policies

by John E. Charalambakis | Oct 19, 2012 | Commentaries

The markets’ developments in the last few months may resemble Zeno’s paradox. According to it, the flight of an arrow signifies the impossibility of change or motion. At any given moment of an arrow’s flight the latter is where it is or where it is not. If it happens...

The Ecosystem of Money: The Placebo Remedy to the Growth Dilemma

by John E. Charalambakis | Oct 11, 2012 | Commentaries

Let me be pretty blunt in this commentary. Growth is stalling almost everywhere due to the gargantuan amount of debt (public and private). Central banks have been exploiting their balance sheets, applying placebo treatments to their sick economies. These treatments...

A Note on China and India: The Pacific and the 21st Century Dilemma of “Buddenbrooks”

by John E. Charalambakis | Oct 4, 2012 | Commentaries

Thomas Mann was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. His novel titled Buddenbrooks has been credited for such success. The novel chronicles the decline of a German bourgeois family. In a similar fashion recent signs of significant slowdown in China...

The Dislocation of Risk and the Mispricing of Assets: The Koilogastor Market

by John E. Charalambakis | Sep 24, 2012 | Commentaries

What is a koilogastor market? One interpretation could be a market characterized by gluttony and voracity. Another could be a market whose womb is empty while declaring that a baby is forthcoming. For the purpose of this commentary a koilogastor market is a market...

The Economy and the Necropolis of Troy: On Mobs, the Arab Spring, and QEs

by John E. Charalambakis | Sep 18, 2012 | Commentaries

The events that shaped last week – and potentially the weeks and months, if not years to come – had both geoeconomics and geopolitical dimensions. In situations like these, the beneficiaries could be viewed as those who shape the path towards the ultimate...