A financial transactions tax (FTT) appears to be tiptoeing ever closer; it has escaped its moral, technical and intellectual shackles. Francois Hollande, the new French president seems bent on introducing the measure (his adversary in the electoral race had mouthed the words, but many people had their doubts). What’s more, Hollande has framed its introductionContinue Reading

To say that the political management of the Greek sovereign debt crisis has been an almost unmitigated disaster is no overstatement. Although it was apparent to all economists (and any schoolchild who gave it a moment’s thought) that the problem of over-indebtedness could not be resolved with even more loans, the EU finance ministers persisted.Continue Reading

My daughter’s classis doing a project on the European Monetary Union. Before you ask, the class is economics, not history. I briefly looked over some of the course material at the weekend. Naturally, everything had been published before the debt crisis and therefore spoke of the political and technical achievement of monetary union in what nowContinue Reading

Equity investors are prepared for a stormy summer. 2 May 2012. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Anecdotal evidence in April of global equity investors pulling in their horns has been given much airtime since last week. Data on money market fund inflows, compared to those of equity funds, for example, certainly indicate that the latter have beenContinue Reading

The two of the three most read posts of the month of April concerned the way decision makers treat news – both the way they attend to it and the way they ignore it depending on whether it is consistent with their beliefs or not. The subject of the other popular post looks at incentivesContinue Reading

Equity investors have seen through the week’s ‘bad news’ 25 April 2012. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). In the three trading sessions that followed last week’s sentiment poll the DAX immediately lost over four percent. The highlight – or lowlight – of that series was Monday, when the index shed most of that ground. On the faceContinue Reading

With the first round of presidential elections in France approaching, I have been forced into the realisation that my long-held belief in a Nicolas Sarkozy win seems stretched. Poll after poll in the past six months have favoured the socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, should it come to a second round run-off between him and theContinue Reading

  Recent equity bulls have already started to get cold-feet. 18 April 2012. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). The single, pressing questions that we asked ourselves after DAX investors turned bullish last week was: where do they see the trend and where do they see the correction? Was the rally since the start of the year theContinue Reading

Last month's most popular read was a post that was supportive of the notorious financial ransactions' tax as a potential solution to the key criticisms of the workings of the City highlighted in the Kay Review. The second most popular post encouraged (up to a point) readers to go out and buy positional goods, orContinue Reading

My nine-year old has been particularly disobedient lately. Her behavior was so unacceptable last week I threatened not to take her to her best friend’s birthday party, planned for last weekend, if she did not mend her ways. Well, the threat went unheeded; she proceeded almost immediately to do the thing that she had beenContinue Reading

The discovery that some UK households keep more than £1,000 in cash at home – often because they distrust banks – is causing some concern for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The body, which protects consumers from losses when financial institutions go bust, is worried because cash held in British homes, some £5.6bn inContinue Reading

The UK government’s opposition to the idea of a financial transactions tax could not be more unequivocal. Indeed, so staunch was official British defence of the financial services sector that both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Mayor of London extended a cheeky invitation to French banks who wanted to set up shop inContinue Reading

Happiness was the theme of two of last month’s most popular posts. One examined the happiness one draws from helping others and questioned the very existence of altruism; the other compared the pleasure that comes from the consumption of experiences rather than of material ‘things’. Finally, one post recounted an early opinion of the FacebookContinue Reading

The UK government has gotten itself into a pickle over its unpaid work experience scheme for the young unemployed. The employers who have taken part in the scheme have been so embarrassed by the media coverage of protesters describing the placements as ‘slave labour’, they have threatened to withdraw. As a result, the employment ministerContinue Reading

Britain should not fund another eurozone bailout until we see the colour of eurozone money, said the UK finance minister in the wings of this weekend’s G20 meeting in Mexico. ‘Quite right too’, will be the obvious refrain of all right-minded people. However, things are never as straightforward as they seem. Britain will be seeingContinue Reading

“As soon as a nation decides to borrow money from foreigners, it loses its sovereignty. Curiously, when Francois Baroin, the French finance minister shared this sentiment during a TV interview, he was talking about his own country, not Greece. He is right, of course: in the very simplest terms, borrowing money means that one losesContinue Reading

“There was a period of remorse and apology for banks; that period needs to be over,” implored Barclay’s boss Bob Diamond before a parliamentary committee in January 2011. Well nobody seems to have been listening because, a year later, banker-bashing persists. Mr Diamond seems determined to remain the lightning rod for public fury but heContinue Reading

“When can I have Facebook, dad?” asked my young daughter at the weekend, obviously envious of the seemingly tireless preoccupation of her older sibling. I told her that she was still too young but, based on the age at which her big sister finally nagged me into submission, I assured her that she would probablyContinue Reading

An allegorical tale about US rating agencies was among the most popular posts last month. But the most frequently read article concerned the pay-day lender, Wonga. The firm, more accustomed to irate commentary, might find this post rather easy on the eye. The third place was taken by a post that was first published in March last year and subsequentlyContinue Reading

Five months have now passed since the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced that it was prepared to defend a minimum exchange rate for the euro of 1.20 Swiss francs using unlimited resources.  It was certainly because the market had not expected such a bold commitment from such a conservative central bank that the threat wasContinue Reading

My neighbour has three mean dogs, Fitch, Moody and Essenpee. The hounds seem to bark all day and all night. They disturb my sleep, interrupt my pastimes, and frighten my guests. What’s worse is that the owner seems to let them out just as I am trying to relax or to work. Despite their menacingContinue Reading

I read another scathing editorial about the payday lender, Wonga, this morning. Not content with fleecing low-income borrowers with annual interest rates on short-term loans that reach 4200 percent, seethed the journalist, the shameless company is now encouraging students to borrow their money in order not to miss out on cheap holiday deals.

The subject of yesterday’s blog post prompted more discussion and opinion in our office than actually made it into words. Debates about morality have a tendency to do that. If anything, the news that the Swiss central bank president, Philipp Hildebrand, had stepped down as a result of a currency trading scandal, further polarised opinions. Continue Reading

For all those who (despite our pre-Christmas advice) chose the wrong gifts for their nearest and dearest: do not worry. Online auction sites reported brisk business, already on the evening of the 25th December, as disgruntled recipients unloaded their unwanted gifts. In most cases, the proceeds were immediately reinvested into new goods. So that meansContinue Reading

An unusual year deserves an unusual year-end Domestic DAX investors have been more than tenacious in their optimism this month. Since the start of December, they endured the heave and pitch of a stock market caught in the crosswinds of an economic, political, and even diplomatic storm. But they held fast. Now, it seems theyContinue Reading

The eurozone debt crisis figured prominently among the most read blog posts in 2011 so it was not surprising that an article which discussed one aspect of the unfolding drama was among the three most popular. The number three spot went to a post that looked at how long it takes for individual investors to getContinue Reading

Choice fatigue has been a theme that we have regularly visited on this blog – especially in the context of the eurozone debt crisis. The predictions of the decision-making research have proved very prescient: when people are tired, stressed, or simply have too many options to choose from, they tend to opt for the defaultContinue Reading

Who can seriously believe that the leader of a UK government, irrespective of its political colour would not have made the same decisions in Brussels on Friday as David Cameron? This is why it is almost impossible to believe that the whole thing was not planned by the other EU politicians from the outset; havingContinue Reading

Investors hopes are pinned on an imminent end to the euro crisis The euro has not been shining as brightly as it used to recently. So a group of technicians opened it up and fixed it. Now it glows like new. Of course, we are talking about the giant euro sign that stands in frontContinue Reading

UK finance minister, George Osborne, had to concede last week that the magnitude of the debt problems his country faces would likely mean five more years of austerity. Together with the two that the country has already endured, that will make a total of ‘seven lean years’. That seemed about right to me: a crisisContinue Reading