15th Century
Disintermediation
My first job was as a graduate trainee for a merchant bank in the City in the late 1980s and among the many buzzwords that the Slick Willies of that profession used to bandy about [more…]
Business
Business
Campaign promises, and a dose of reality
As my regular readers know, most of my essays are forays into challenging economic issues. They reflect my own attempts to gain an understanding of their underlying principles. But there’s a lot riding on the [more…]
19th Century
When Popes Took Coke
The rise and fall of coca wine Coca leaves have been used as a stimulant in South America for over a thousand years, especially in the Andes to overcome the fatigue of living and working [more…]
Business
The Gulf Between Rich & Poor
We are well into the protest season. The long run-up to the election period has been characterised by one protest after another – no-deal Brexit, climate change, arms sales, Tommy Robinson, police brutality, capitalism, Trump’s [more…]
Arts
Bacon Baguettes & Round Laces
My old chum Carruthers came to stay last week, he works for a major airline & has seen plenty of the world in the last forty years, as indeed I have myself. We somehow got [more…]
Business
Every Folly Has Its Consequences
The great Spanish master, Francisco Goya, expressed it concisely: “The sleep of reason produces monsters”. Today, wherever you look, insanity masquerades as rational thought. Lunatics flout their blatantly potty views as if they carried the [more…]
America
Keeping Economics Simple
The US Department of Defence is a major customer of many private sector suppliers, including the Boeing Company. Although relationships between customer and supplier are mutually beneficial, that is by no means the only reason [more…]
Business
The Necessary and Inevitable Recession to Come
Perhaps the most destructive premise of modern, mainstream economics is that a central bank-induced monetary/credit expansion can cause an economy to grow without adverse consequences. Let’s be perfectly clear from the start…this policy has been [more…]
Arts
The Truth About Central Banks
Most of the world takes it for granted that central banks are necessary for the smooth conduct of trade, both foreign and domestic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s be clear. Central banks [more…]