Wall Street watchdog puts spotlight on firms hiring risky brokers …Wall Street brokerages that hire stockbrokers who have a track record of misconduct should expect to show examiners how they will curb future wrongdoing, the industry's watchdog said on Thursday in an overview of issues it will review in 2014. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said it will review the pro...Read More
Greed must have limits or we risk ending up like the Russians, trusting no one … Mutual trust in a society is easy to destroy but very difficult to build … Russia underwent the Revolution, with its overturning of society's ranks and distinctions and the destruction of fortunes, civil war and subsequent state terrorism, and more recently, the breakdown of the Soviet Union. – U...Read More
Wall Street watchdog puts spotlight on firms hiring risky brokers …Wall Street brokerages that hire stockbrokers who have a track record of misconduct should expect to show examiners how they will curb future wrongdoing, the industry's watchdog said on Thursday in an overview of issues it will review in 2014. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said it will review the pro...Read More
Political insurgency, Europe's Tea Parties – Insurgent parties are likely to do better in 2014 than at any time since the second world war … Since 2010 or so, the Tea Party, a Republican insurgency, has turned American politics upside down. – The EconomistDominant Social Theme: These are parties to be watched and contained.Free-Market Analysis: Ten years ago, when we wrote ab...Read More
IMF paper warns of 'savings tax' and mass write-offs as West's debt hits 200-year high … Debt burdens in developed nations have become extreme by any historical measure and will require a wave of haircuts, warns IMF paper. The paper said policy elites in the West are still clinging to the illusion that rich countries can chip away at their debts with a blend of austerity cuts and...Read More
Political insurgency, Europe's Tea Parties – Insurgent parties are likely to do better in 2014 than at any time since the second world war … Since 2010 or so, the Tea Party, a Republican insurgency, has turned American politics upside down. – The EconomistDominant Social Theme: These are parties to be watched and contained.Free-Market Analysis: Ten years ago, when we wrote ab...Read More
IMF paper warns of 'savings tax' and mass write-offs as West's debt hits 200-year high … Debt burdens in developed nations have become extreme by any historical measure and will require a wave of haircuts, warns IMF paper. The paper said policy elites in the West are still clinging to the illusion that rich countries can chip away at their debts with a blend of austerity cuts and...Read More
The economy is growing. The free market isn't. That's worrying … It's not just the year that's changed. The New Year economic outlook seems very different, too. We've gone from gloom in 2013 to boom in 2014. No longer are pundits writing pieces predicting our imminent economic demise. Instead it is all about rising house prices, stronger sales and growth. An extraordinary...Read More
Edward Snowden, the insufferable whistleblower … Time has not deflated Edward Snowden's messianic sense of self-importance. Nor has living in an actual police state given the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower any greater appreciation of the actual freedoms that Americans enjoy. Insufferable is the first adjective evoked by Snowden's recent interview with Barton Gellman in...Read More
The economy is growing. The free market isn't. That's worrying … It's not just the year that's changed. The New Year economic outlook seems very different, too. We've gone from gloom in 2013 to boom in 2014. No longer are pundits writing pieces predicting our imminent economic demise. Instead it is all about rising house prices, stronger sales and growth. An extraordinary...Read More
Edward Snowden, the insufferable whistleblower … Time has not deflated Edward Snowden's messianic sense of self-importance. Nor has living in an actual police state given the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower any greater appreciation of the actual freedoms that Americans enjoy. Insufferable is the first adjective evoked by Snowden's recent interview with Barton Gellman in...Read More
Revolting voters … Democracy is under threat, warns Philip Coggan. Time to reform it … A huge year for democracy lies ahead: in 2014 voters will go to the polls in some of the biggest countries of the developing world, including India, Indonesia and Brazil, as well as in the United States (for mid-terms) and across the 28 countries of the European Union (to elect the European Parliamen...Read More
Global warming scientists forced to admit defeat… because of too much ice: Stranded Antarctic ship's crew will be rescued by helicopter … Chris Turney, a climate scientist and leader of the expedition, was going to document 'environmental changes' at the pole … In an interview he said he expected melting ice to play a part in expedition … MV Akademik Schokalskiy...Read More
Revolting voters … Democracy is under threat, warns Philip Coggan. Time to reform it … A huge year for democracy lies ahead: in 2014 voters will go to the polls in some of the biggest countries of the developing world, including India, Indonesia and Brazil, as well as in the United States (for mid-terms) and across the 28 countries of the European Union (to elect the European Parliamen...Read More
Global warming scientists forced to admit defeat… because of too much ice: Stranded Antarctic ship's crew will be rescued by helicopter … Chris Turney, a climate scientist and leader of the expedition, was going to document 'environmental changes' at the pole … In an interview he said he expected melting ice to play a part in expedition … MV Akademik Schokalskiy...Read More
Gold price collapse is the worst for 30 years … The precious metal has been one of the worst-performing assets in 2013, bringing an end to a decade-long rally. Gold has fallen almost 28pc over the last 12 months … Gold will finish the year as one of the worst-performing asset classes, bringing to an end a decade-long rally in the precious metal. Gold has suffered its sharpest fall in 3...Read More
The Audacity of Optimism. In the year or more that I have written this column, I have often emphasized the way in which things may be going at least a bit right. That contrasts with the frequently repeated mantra that we are going dangerously off the rails. Of course, like anyone, I may be right or wrong or somewhere in between. What's been perplexing about responses to this column, however, i...Read More
Gold price collapse is the worst for 30 years … The precious metal has been one of the worst-performing assets in 2013, bringing an end to a decade-long rally. Gold has fallen almost 28pc over the last 12 months … Gold will finish the year as one of the worst-performing asset classes, bringing to an end a decade-long rally in the precious metal. Gold has suffered its sharpest fall in 3...Read More
The Audacity of Optimism. In the year or more that I have written this column, I have often emphasized the way in which things may be going at least a bit right. That contrasts with the frequently repeated mantra that we are going dangerously off the rails. Of course, like anyone, I may be right or wrong or somewhere in between. What's been perplexing about responses to this column, however, i...Read More
U.S. jobless claims fall, holiday retail sales rise. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nearly a month, a hopeful sign for the labor market, while holiday retail sales rose in November and December. While the holiday season has made recent claims data so volatile it has been difficult to interpret, Thursday's report showed...Read More