This is the Labor Day weekend in the USA – the traditional start of the mid-term election campaign. And just as in September 2016, the Real Clear Politics poll shows that most voters feel their country is going in the wrong direction. The demographic influences that I highlighted then are also becoming ever-more important with time: […]
Chemicals and the Economy
“Business as usual” the least likely outcome for Europe
Europe is heading in to the Great Unknown, as Monday’s post highlighted. The UK, The Netherlands and France are not the only political uncertainties that we face. Elections are also due in Italy and in Germany. Italian elections. After premier Renzi’s referendum defeat last year, it seems like that Italy will hold elections this year, […]
Political risk rises as voters feel only the populists are listening
This week, the new UK premier, Theresa May, highlighted how the central banks have encouraged the populists’ rise: “We have to acknowledge some of the bad side-effects. People with assets have got richer, people without have not.” The problem, of course, goes wider than this. The continuing failure to recover from the 2008 Financial Crisis […]
Markets struggle with political risk as populist momentum gains
Markets have forgotten how to price political uncertainty in recent decades, as I discussed on Monday. They have become dependent on central bank handouts, and assumed that globalisation and trade agreements are permanent features of the economic landscape. Today, they are having to relearn, very quickly, what has been forgotten. My post a year ago […]
Jump to page: