At the Intersection of Geopolitics and Geoeconomics: Francafrique Meets Africom
Objective: The energy independence of Europe, the containment of China in Africa, and the development of African assets Goal: Breaking the energy ties between Russia and Europe, limiting the transfer of operational assets from African nations to China, and the...
The Parallel Universe of Greece and Cyprus: Where Do they go from Here?
The dream became a nightmare for both Greece and Cyprus. Who is to be blamed for this? The purpose of this brief is not to present an outline for all the causes. The objective is to identify the root parallels that have created a universe of uncertainty for both...
The Softening of Inflation Targets and the Trajectory of the Markets: Upswing or Downtrend?
There were three events last week that paved the way forward for the markets, namely: The minutes of the Federal Reserve Bank that exhibited some reservation about continuing accommodative monetary policy; the downgrading of the British economy from its AAA status by...
On the Restless Efforts to Jumpstart the Global Economic Engine: Riding the Tide
In this week’s commentary we will briefly show how the buffer zones created by the world’s central banks are expected to result in above (recent) trend growth due to the fact that liquidity provisions are expected to boost lending ratios primarily in the US and...
Temporary Upswings and Credit Markets: Looking at Asia
The markets are experiencing a temporary upswing due to the velocity of the buffer zones that central banks are creating. Those buffer zones are trying to create a unity of response and convergence. The monetization and credit growth in Asia is uplifting its prospects...
Capital Markets and the Velocity of Buffer Zones: Recent Economic Developments Using QE Lenses
In the summer of 2011 we published some commentaries about the development of financial black holes. The argument of this commentary goes as follows: Central banks and governments around the world adopted the Powell doctrine of overwhelming force to defeat the enemy...
“Collapse, Avoid a Relapse, Don’t Relax”: Prospects, Downside Risks, Central Banks, and Existential Threats
The words quoted in the title above, were pronounced by Christine Lagarde (the head of the IMF) at the Davos annual economic conference. She was referring to the EU experience in 2012. Without a doubt, the Euro zone almost collapsed last year, and her recommendation...
The Prospects for Real Estate: Part II of Assessing the Prospects for 2013
In this week’s commentary we offer our assessment of a positive outlook for the real estate sector in 2013. We believe that real estate will outperform most – if not all – of fixed income investments in this environment of financial repression. We anticipate all real...
The Triumph of Central Banking?
It is an honor to host Chairman Paul Volcker’s speech on Central Banking, as this week’s commentary. The speech was given in 1990 during the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lectures series. During his tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, the US regained its...
Uber Alles, the Intersection of Basle and Chicago: A Conversation with Moses, Solon, William Gladstone and William Jennings Bryan
I boarded the non-stop flight from Basle, Switzerland to Chicago. It was destined to be an exciting flight due to the persons sitting around me and the topics of their discussions. Given that life is short, let’s start with dessert (conclusion) first. As Chairman...
