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Currency Reserves
There are reasons why major nations haven’t done this yet. But the probability is that they will be driven into doing so in time, as global economic growth remains sluggish, governments fail to implement the radical reforms needed to kick-start higher growth, annual borrowings required to finance fiscal deficits stay high, and the private sector becomes increasingly unwilling to lend money to governments at derisory rates of interest. [Read more…]
Tallinn – Estonia
Estonia, across the Baltic, with close linguistic, historical and economic ties with Finland and Sweden, is a nation of just 1.3 million. After it regained its independence in 1991, it opted for free trade, flat taxes, fiscal and monetary restraint and stable exchange rates. Its economy grew fast, and Estonia sought close ties with its neighbours to the west, entering both the European Union and NATO. [Read more…]
John Mauldin - Endgame
Endgame, John Mauldin’s much-praised book on “the end of the debt supercycle and how it changes everything,” is an excellent backgrounder to the changed global environment in which we now have to invest. [Read more…]
Crisis provides Opportunities
Crises offer the best opportunities for investors, although we need nerves of steel to seize those opportunities.
You might have expected all the bad news from Japan and the Mideast to clobber Asian stock markets. But they have done nothing of the sort.
After a moderate correction, the markets as a whole remain in an uptrend. The bourse you would expect to be hit the hardest, Japan, plunged immediately after the tsunami, but has already recovered half the ground lost and is now well above levels seen last year. [Read more…]
Some strengths to cope with adversity
Cope with Adversity
continued from previous article > The truth about cutting out waste
My next point is important, although rarely voiced…
It suits commentators, politicians and speculators to scare the wits out of people with apocalyptic visions of what will happen if their particular views aren’t acted on. I am convinced that although Britain’s fundamental problem of public-sector profligacy is serious, the immediate risks of a fiscal crisis are greatly exaggerated.
The strengths of Britain’s position are ignored by scaremongers. For example, its foreign trade deficit is low – the IMF forecasts it for this year at only 1.7 per cent of national output, compared to 8.9 per cent for Greece. Unlike the US, the UK does not need a massive continuing inflow of foreign capital to pay for excessive imports. And its national debt, although soaring, is doing so from a relatively low level. [Read more…]
