On Global Markets

Voters, as they have made clear over the last few years, hate inflation. And to most of the general public, it appears that ‘inflation’ does not just mean the pace of year on year prices rises but something about the level of prices. People would generally, and understandably, like things to be cheaper – especially […] 

One consequence of the more tumultuous geopolitical environment of the 2020s has been a material rise in global defense spending, and one that looks set to continue. As the IMF noted in its World Economic Outlook this April: After decades of declining global defense spending, rising geopolitical risks and more frequent military conflicts are pushing […] 

There is a well-rehearsed choreography to Yen interventions. It usually starts with ‘sources close to the Ministry of Finance’ letting it be known that they are unhappy with the current level of the Yen, or at least displeased, with the sharpness of recent moves. That is sometimes enough to persuade investors to back away. If […] 

A couple of weeks ago, this column reported on a Finance Experts Panel poll on the Fed’s new communications strategy. Or, as it might be termed, anti-communications strategy. Kevin Warsh, the new Chair, has taken a radically different approach to his most recent three predecessors. As that column explained, ‘he worries that forward guidance means […] 

The Fed has a larger balance sheet than was once the case. Dramatically so, as the chart below makes clear. This is a result of a series of policy decisions made over the last two decades; namely three rounds of quantitative easing (QE) carried out between 2008 and 2014; and then an additional period of […] 

The Fed has a new chair and, it would seem, one with a very different approach to his predecessors. While much of the attention has, understandably, been focused on the traditional question of how hawkish or dovish Kevin Warsh will be on rates, there are deeper issues at play. In (at least) a couple of […] 

To mark the tenth anniversary of the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union, the Clark Center’s US and European Economic Experts Panels recently looked – once again – at the vexed issue of Brexit. Brexit is one of those issues which has the potential, at least in the UK, to provoke a fierce […] 

Earlier this month, the European Union unveiled its rather unimaginatively named European Technological Sovereignty Package. One imagines that had this been a proposal emanating from the US Congress, it would have had a punchier and more bombastic name; the Safeguarding America Act or some such. Name aside, though, the package was certainly ambitious. As European […] 

Towards the end of last month, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy memo which, in their words, ‘reiterated’ ‘ long-standing immigration law and immigration court decisions’ about the application process for a Green Card. As the USCIS spokesperson explained at the time: We’re returning to the original intent of the law to […] 

Over the last couple of weeks, your columnist’s inbox has been filling up each morning with emails about the imminent listing of SpaceX. About two-thirds of those emails have been newsletters from various financial media outlets – Bloomberg, the FT, the WSJ, etc – worrying about changes to the listing and index inclusion rules and […]