In the boarding area I could clearly see three distinct figures: Johannes Bredenburg, Sir John Templeton, and Spinoza. I knew that I was destined for another treat in this end-of-year […]

In last week’s commentary, we outlined our overall assessment of a decent start for 2020, but expressed our skepticism for the rest of the year (see Assessing the 2020 Outlook: […]

We started assessing the outlook for 2020 a few weeks ago. The truth of the matter is that we are facing two almost equally probable scenarios: The first one (adopted […]

Yesterday, was a very sad day for the US and the world. The economic giant Paul Volcker passed away. Paul Volcker by himself saved the economic system four times (with […]

Jacques de Larosière from the Center for Financial Stability (CFS) shares his latest thinking on inflation targets and the unintended consequences from excessively accommodative monetary policy. “This challenge could be […]

We are at the hinge of a new era where we are supposed to choose between a reality of tyranny and illiberalism dominated by kleptocrats, and an age of democratic […]

Septimius Severus founded the Roman dynasty that carried his name in the year A.D. 193. That year is known as the “year of the five emperors.”  The year began after […]

Immanuel Kant’s definition of our modern era and of the Age of Enlightenment was that “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity…The motto of Enlightenment is therefore: Sapere Aude! […]

First of all, allow us to start with some clarifications/definitions: Heraclitus Fallacy: The belief that history imposes no constraints. Failing to comprehend the past not only signifies ignorance, but is […]

We are now under the auspices of a zero-sum game world due to negligible productivity growth rate. Such a shift can be seen as a symptom of trade wars. We […]