“Bread and circuses” was how the government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles, whereas today’s equivalent is the welfare state and to bomb someone as a means of distraction during problematic periods. Well, stock-markets took a hit this week, following the release of a memo by former FBI […]
When Harold Wilson commenced his first stint as the British Labour Party Prime Minister in 1964, he inherited an unusually large external deficit on the balance of trade from the Conservative administration and despite fighting the markets for a couple of years, the inevitable devaluation of the £GBP came in 1967, when Wilson famously assured […]
“793”…… Global merger and acquisition (M&A) deals have been completed this year as of the end of April 2017, according to “dialogic” who collates the data involving publicly traded corporations. This is 20% lower than the comparable period of 2016 and is the lowest number since 1998, which given that stock and bond markets are […]
French voters face a stark choice in Sunday’s presidential election between joining the wave of populism that has swept across the European and American political landscape over the past year or an attempt to renew the governing principles that have guided their country for decades, albeit via a 39-year-former untested Socialist turned Centrist. With the […]
“3% annualised GDP”…… Is the expectation/hope/dream set out by the new US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this week, as he and his fellow ex-Goldman Sachs colleague and now White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, set out “the biggest tax reform in American history.” Tax cuts, set to slash corporate rates from 35% to […]
“7th May 2020”…… was to be the date of the UK’s next General Election, in line with the fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. However, the British Prime Minister, Teresa May, called for an 8th June 2017 snap election this week and was backed by the two-thirds majority required from the 650 MPs in the House of […]
Just nine months after British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, following his failed “gamble” on calling a referendum on EU membership, his successor Teresa May announced a snap election decision this week, to be held on the 8th June 2017, mercifully only 7 short-weeks from today and despite her denying any plans for an early […]
“Liquidity”…… is defined as a measure or extent to which a person or organisation has cash to meet immediate and short-term obligations, or assets that can be quickly converted to cash to do this. Put another way, it’s the life-blood of the markets without which they cease-up. There are numerous clues to assist in […]
In the late February overview, “¥en, a Desire to Watch Closely,” the message was “if ever there is a time to keep a very close eye on the ¥en, or more importantly the $US/¥ cross-rate, it’s now.” At the time the cross rate was 112.5 with four charts outlining the close correlation of the $US/¥ […]
“Rock On”…… is a song written by British singer/songwriter David Essex and recorded in 1973 shortly before a UK referendum took the nation into the European Union. In the week when “Article 50,” the process by which member states may withdraw from the EU, was triggered by the British Prime Minister, “Rock,” hit the news […]
Italy……the birthplace of the “Treaties of Rome,” which ushered in the European Economic Community, also labelled as the “Common Market,” is a fitting place for the great and the good of the now “European Bureaucratic Monster” to celebrate its 60th anniversary this weekend. Originally attended in Rome on the 25th March 1957 by representatives from […]
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“Bread and circuses” was how the government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles, whereas today’s equivalent is the welfare state and to bomb someone as a means of distraction during problematic periods. Well, stock-markets took a hit this week, following the release of a memo by former FBI Director James Comey which alleges an obstruction of justice by President Trump, the man who sacked Comey a week earlier. The airwaves and financial media were full of speculation over possible “impeachment proceedings” against “the Donald,”
when surprise, surprise the US administration decided to bomb Syria. They could have saved themselves and perhaps more importantly the lives of innocents who always end up as “collateral damage” by browsing our mid-week socionomic comment, “Impeachment? Wrong time, wrong mood!” Interestingly, this week also observed the President’s first overseas visit since taking office, to none other than Saudi Arabia, the number one arms buyer from the US, the Brits and the French. The Washington and its tribune “swamp(s)” appear to be getting murkier, albeit that the attack on Syria may have appeased “elite” Republican Trump critics like John McCain who has yet to name a country that he doesn’t wish to bomb.
Adding to the uncertainty this week was Brazil, where the Ibovespa stock-index tumbled by 8.8% and its currency, the real, by 7.3% on Thursday alone, as political crisis returned to the country despite last year’s impeachment process to clear its swamp. To continue reading the main economic and market events of the week, supported by interesting charts, please read on and for a limited time period non-subscriber’s can access the full report via the “at your discretion” pay what you think it’s worth offer:
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Returning to the “bread” analogy to today’s welfare state, this week also saw the release of the UK political parties’ election manifestos ……
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