On Global Markets

As readers will know, the global economy is in the early stages of an energy price shock driven by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  This particular crisis is both difficult to write about and clouded in uncertainty. As with any geopolitical issue, and especially […] 

It has always been quite hard to square the Trump presidential campaign’s regular focus on ‘affordability’ – or sometimes just ‘the price of eggs’ – with the actions his second administration has embarked on in office. In the view of most economists, the President’s signature economic policy – the imposition of tariffs – makes many […] 

Over the last few years global equity market investors, and especially those closely following US markets, have devoted an awful lot of time to thinking about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). The promise of speculator returns, and the potential of large first moved advantages, have seen the price of AI-exposed firms – and in […] 

The Clean Air Act is a foundational piece of US environmental legislation and, since 2009, has sat at the core of the government’s approach to regulating harmful emissions, such as carbon monoxide. The Environmental Protection Agency has now revoked its so-called greenhouse gas endangerment finding, potentially leading to a wave of deregulation. As a useful […] 

Your columnist’s first job after graduating from university was working in the team at the Bank of England that compiled and analysed the UK’s monetary aggregates. This was, sadly for him, in the days before the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent birth of quantitative easing as a major tool of policy revived – at […] 

Over the past three months, alongside the regular coverage of the Clark Center’s polls and other news, On Global Markets has been reporting on the discussions held at the Clark Center Economic Experts Conference 9/10 October. Most of those sessions were held under the Chatham House Rule. This is the final conference report. Following a […] 

From the mid to late 2010s, and into the early 2020s, there was a flourishing of interest in the idea of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). By some counts more than 120 central banks have explored the idea of issuing a digital version of their currency. Unlike a typical cryptocurrency, a CBDC would be issued […] 

Around 24 million Americans buy healthcare insurance through the marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and, until the 31st December last year, the majority of those purchasers received a subsidy via a tax credit. But now those subsidies have been allowed to lapse. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week: Millions of […] 

Over the past three months, alongside the regular coverage of the Clark Center’s polls and other news, On Global Markets has been reporting on the discussions held at the Clark Center Economic Experts Conference 9/10 October. Most of those sessions were held under the Chatham House Rule. The final session of the Clark Center’s Economic […] 

Throughout the second half of 2024 and for much of 2025, whenever global investors were surveyed on the biggest risks to asset prices, ‘geopolitics’ tended to come towards the top of the list.  The first two weeks of 2026 have seen a US intervention in Venezuela, mass protests and threats of foreign intervention in Iran, […]