2016 saw the start of the Great Reckoning for the failure of stimulus policies. Political and social issues are now beginning to dominate the landscape. As we saw in the UK’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union, voters no longer see economics as the sole issue in elections. This paradigm shift was then followed […]
Chemicals and the Economy
Ronald Coase dies at age 102
Ronald Coase is one of those great thinkers whose ideas have influenced the business world, even though most people have never heard their name. The blog only heard of him in the early 1990s, and was astounded when it read his work. The book had the rather dry title of “The firm, the market and the […]
Algebra is the new alchemy for central banks
The blog’s Boom, Gloom and the New Normal eBook highlights the impact of the ageing Western babyboomers on future demand patterns. Yet central banks such as the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank believe demographics have nothing to do with demand. For them, as one former central banker told the blog “demand is […]
4 risks to the world economy
The latest report from the ‘central bankers’ bank’ provides an excellent analysis of what might go wrong in the world economy over the next 2 – 3 years. Anyone interested in scenario planning will find its conclusions valuable.